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Booking Holdings Loses EU Appeal In €1.63 Billion ETraveli Deal Ruling

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

Booking Holdings has lost its challenge to the European Union’s veto of its €1.63 billion acquisition of ETraveli, marking a significant victory for regulators and underscoring the bloc’s tougher stance on large-scale tech and platform deals.

European Court Backs Commission’s Merger Analysis

On Wednesday, Europe’s second-highest court sided with the European Commission, which blocked the deal in 2023 on the grounds that it would have deepened Booking’s market power and made it harder for competitors to challenge its position in online travel services.

The Luxembourg-based General Court rejected Booking’s claim that the Commission had failed to follow its own merger rules and had applied the wrong legal test. In its ruling, the court said regulators were correct to conclude that acquiring ETraveli, one of Europe’s leading online flight booking platforms, would have reinforced Booking’s already dominant position in online travel agencies tied to hotel bookings.

Why Regulators Stepped In

The case reflects a broader shift in European competition policy. In recent years, the Commission has intensified scrutiny of acquisitions by dominant technology and platform companies, warning that so-called “killer acquisitions” can weaken competition by absorbing smaller but strategically important rivals before they grow into serious threats.

For regulators, the concern was not simply the size of the transaction, but the strategic logic behind it: combining a major hotel booking platform with a leading flight booking operator could have created a more integrated travel ecosystem that rival firms might struggle to match.

What The Deal Would Have Added To Booking’s Portfolio

Booking’s portfolio includes Booking.com, Rentalcars, Priceline and Agoda, giving it broad reach across global travel services. ETraveli, owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, operates brands such as Gotogate and Mytrip and also provides airline content distribution through TripStack.

The combination would have expanded Booking’s ability to offer a wider set of travel products within a single ecosystem, a model that can strengthen customer retention but also raise concerns about market concentration and competitive foreclosure.

Appeal Still Possible

The General Court’s ruling does not necessarily end the matter. Booking can still appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest court, if it chooses to continue the legal fight.

For now, however, the decision stands as a reminder that in Europe, even large and established platform companies face increasing resistance when acquisitions appear likely to consolidate power rather than expand consumer choice.

Drinking Very Hot Tea And Coffee May Raise Esophageal Cancer Risk

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

People who regularly drink very hot tea or coffee may face a higher risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a study has found. Those who drank their beverages very hot had nearly three times the risk of developing the cancer compared with people who drank them warm.

The study also found a link with consumption levels. People who drank six or more hot beverages a day faced a higher risk than those who consumed fewer.

Why Temperature Matters

Coffee and tea are typically consumed at about 50 to 60 degrees Celsius, although temperatures vary by country and preparation method. Adding milk does not necessarily make a drink cool enough, and experts recommend letting very hot beverages sit for several minutes before drinking.

“If a drink is uncomfortable to drink, letting it sit to cool down a bit to what you might expect to be warm or hot as opposed to very hot would be a good idea,” said Keren Papier, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Oxford’s Department of Population Health and a co-author of the study.

Papier said the size of the study strengthens evidence linking very hot drinks with squamous cell carcinoma, a subtype of esophageal cancer.

A Rare But Serious Cancer

Esophageal cancer has two main forms: squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Squamous cell esophageal cancer remains relatively rare in the UK, where the lifetime risk of developing the disease is about 1%, according to Papier.

The potential public-health impact is nevertheless significant because tea and coffee are among Europe’s most widely consumed beverages. Europeans consumed an average of 5.7 kilograms of coffee per person in 2023.

Smoking And Alcohol Remain Major Risk Factors

Temperature is only one part of the overall risk picture. Cancer Research UK identifies smoking and alcohol consumption as the leading lifestyle risk factors for esophageal cancer, followed by obesity.

“The best thing beyond our study is to make sure that you cut your smoking and maybe avoiding alcohol helps a bit as well,” Papier said. She emphasized that established cancer risk factors should remain central to prevention.

For tea and coffee drinkers, the practical takeaway is simple: let very hot beverages cool before drinking them.

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