This is a new fine that will go to the Paris treasury. After Airbnb, it was Booking com’s turn to indict a Paris court for awarding a € 1.234 million fine to the city of Paris.
The reason for the conflict? Booking com did not provide the city with certain information, in particular about the number of days during which furnished tourist apartments were rented out.
Since the entry into force of the ELAN law in 2019, platforms are obliged to transfer to the city authorities the duration of the rental housing for tourists so that they can check their legality and, if necessary, carry out control, reminds the municipality of Paris in a statement released after the court’s decision.
However, several platforms refused to obey this law from the outset. For this reason, the Paris authorities have decided to sue nine platforms, including Booking.com, the largest of them, with nearly 3,000 rental advertisements. In particular, the city of Paris attacked the Dutch platform for not transmitting data for 2019 and 2020, although Booking sent its data for 2021, the magistrate said.
Seasonal rental regulation
“We are at a turning point in the regulation of furnished tourist accommodation,” says Jan Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris for Housing. The city of Paris has already declared war on Airbnb, which was previously awarded over 8 million euros to the city of Paris for regulating seasonal rentals.
In fact, there are thousands of listings offering accommodation in Paris without an Airbnb registration number, although registration number is required by law. It is precisely this kind of registration, according to the intention of the law, should allow counting the number of tenants’ nights, limited to 120 per year. After these 120 nights, tenants must request a change in the use of their house / apartment at the City Hall of Paris.
In recent years, the European Commission has also taken steps to make the transactions of consumers on Booking com more transparent. Specifically, Booking com, like Expedia, have agreed to clarify their publications, such as which offers are paid as advertisements, how payments received by lodging providers have affected ratings, how many people would like to book a room in the same hotel for the same dates, and how many rooms left on the site.