Trip.com Killed Tool at the Center of China’s Antitrust Case — and It’s Already Hitting Profits

Skift Take Trip.com will now have to prove that it can keep hotels, sustain growth, and defend its market position without the commercial tools that regulators ruled crossed the line. Trip.com Group said Monday it shut down a program at the center of China’s antitrust case against the company, and those changes are already weighing on the online travel company’s financial performance. Speaking on an investor call Monday after China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued its antitrust ruling, CEO Jane Sun and CFO Xiaofan Wang said Trip.com has eliminated its automated price-tracking and price-matching tool and is scrapping its Tier 1 and Tier 2 delegated distribution programs — the commercial arrangements that governed how hotels distributed inventory and prices across the platform. In their place, executives described a new “multi-tier partnership framework” designed to offer greater flexibility, transparency and shared growth. The company also confirmed that the March shutdown of its pricing tool would impact results. “