Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 20, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a wide variety of stories, includes updates from OpenAI, Google and Hopper (sort of). Enjoy.

• • Google Doubles Down on Agentic Commerce. As OpenAI re-thinks (perhaps only temporarily) its approach to AI driven online commerce, Google appears to be heading in the opposite direction, at least with regard to traditional retailing. This past week, Google announced new capabilities for its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), including cart management (allowing purchases of multiple items from the same retailer), real time catalogue access and loyalty program integration. While travel remains on UCP’s official list of excluded products and services, many expect that to change soon once the platform learns traditional retail.
  • European Law Makers Urge Stricter Enforcement of DMA. Two key European Parliament members have authored a paper encouraging “rigorous enforcement” of the DMA’s provisions against gatekeepers, including Booking.com. The paper is set for a vote by the Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection this next week, and if adopted, the paper will become part of the European Commission’s larger review of the DMA. The DMA has come under increasing attack by members of the Trump administration, which according to some, has caused EU lawmakers to hold back on imposing fines for fear of retaliatory tariffs. According to the paper, European lawmakers “must not compromise the EU’s sovereignty and its autonomy to define and enforce its own rules.” With regard to Booking, the authors allege that some of Booking’s practices, like performance-based programs for hotels, might be equivalent to parity provisions that the DMA expressly prohibits.
  • Hilton Launches New “Select by Hilton” with Yotel Franchise. You might ask why this story is relevant to our weekly Online Travel Update. This “unique” model allows Yotel to maintain independent operational control across its portfolio , while at the same time leveraging Hilton’s sophisticated loyalty and distribution systems (and presumably, preferential distribution terms and conditions). Size matters in the loyalty and distribution worlds and those without size must continue to look for creative solutions and structures to drive direct bookings while lowering the cost (and challenges) of third party bookings. For those with size, structures like the newly announced “Select by Hilton” brand allows Hilton to realize a return on its large loyalty and distribution investments, but at the same time, may create administrative challenges as it assumes some level of responsibility for the new portfolio’s compliance with existing practices and contractual requirements.
  • Capital One Acquires Hopper Technology Behind Capital One Platform. When rumors of this transaction were first announced last November it created considerable confusion among many industry suppliers, particularly those with direct distribution relationships with Hopper. Now that the rumored deal has been officially confirmed and closing is imminent, I’m still not sure anyone really knows what is happening.

Have a great week everyone.