VISITBRITAIN could be forced to pay back more than £6 million in public funding after a formal complaint over its EnglandNet website was lodged with the European Commission.
As many as 49 agencies, tour operators, including Hoseasons, trade associations, online marketing companies and the Forum of Private Business support the complaint that the publicly funded property search and bookable site EnglandNet, which is run by VisitBritain, is in direct competition with privately backed sites offering the same service.
The complaint is being handled by solicitors Bond Pearce and if successful could see VisitBritain forced to close the site and pay back the £6 million in public funding used to set it up and run it.
Bond Pearce partner and competition law expert Nick Page said: “The service is almost identical to those operated by my clients.”
He added the site breaches State Aid rules, which forbid the use of state funding to give an unfair advantage to any service operating in the free market.
The complaint follows a state aid complaint registered with the EC in 2004.
A VisitBritain spokesman said the site was open to everyone to join but could not comment as any action taken by the Government would be defended by the Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Take VisitBritain and Travel Weekly’s EnjoyEngland online training course