Maybe true if you are comparing IHG with other brands, but the OFTs point is that this deal means that you will always see the same price for an IHG hotel whether you go to an IHG website or one of the big booking engines. In a truly competitive market, the agent would be free to offer a lower price by reducing the amount of commission they made on the booking.

There seems to be evidence (in the UK at least) that when sites consistently undercut IHGs own rates, they are put under pressure to match the IHG rate or stopped from offering IHG hotels for sale.

If this decision is upheld, then I think it spells the end of the Best Rate Guarantee.