Ving and its owner Nordic Leisure Travel Group, NLTG, are subject to an EU investigation into the travel industry's keyword advertising. The investigation is ongoing at the same time as Norwegian is about to buy the travel group for around SEK 7.9 billion. Norwegian was informed about the investigation already during the company inspection prior to the deal.

The European Commission is investigating suspected anti-competitive agreements in the travel industry linked to advertising in search engines.

The suspicions concern how companies bid on keywords. For example, competing companies may agree not to buy certain keywords, which could mean that a company's ads do not appear when consumers search for a competitor.

– The Commission can confirm that it is investigating the travel industry for suspected anti-competitive agreements on bidding on non-brand related keywords in online search engine marketing, says Luuk de Klein, press spokesperson at the European Commission, for Dagens Industri.

According to Di, Ving is one of the companies being reviewed.

Ving knew about the review last spring

Nordic Leisure Travel Group has been aware of the EU Commission's investigation since the end of spring.

– We know very little so far, says Claes Pellvik, communications manager at NLTG.

He does not want to state whether Ving or NLTG have entered into any agreements with other travel companies regarding keyword advertising.

– We do not want to prejudge the investigation that the European Commission is conducting. We welcome their investigation and will of course cooperate with the European Commission.

Norwegian was informed before the billion-dollar deal

The review comes at a sensitive time for Ving. In June, Norwegian announced that the airline would buy NLTG for around SEK 7.9 billion from Strawberry, Altor and TDR.

However, the EU case was known to Norwegian when the deal was announced.

– We informed them about this in connection with their due diligence, says Claes Pellvik.

Keyword advertising even under Swedish scrutiny

Similar agreements have been brought to the attention of the Swedish Competition Authority. The authority is investigating Apotea, Kronans Apotek, Apotek Hjärtat and Apoteket for suspected agreements not to bid on each other's trademarks and company names.

The Swedish Competition Authority previously decided on a total of just over SEK 26 million in fines for Kry, Min Doktor, Doktor.se and Doktor24 after similar settlements.

However, the legal situation is not clear. Following an appeal from Min Doktor, the Patent and Market Court found in June that the agreement had an anti-competitive purpose, but at the same time considered that there was insufficient support for this type of agreement in itself to be considered harmful to competition.

The EU Commission's review of the travel industry is ongoing and it is not yet clear from the information when it is expected to be completed or what possible consequences it may have for Ving and NLTG.

Source: DI.SE