The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Booking.com breached the EU’s Digital Services Act by failing to tackle fraudulent listings and phishing scams, and by not clearly labelling some paid-for higher-ranked listings as advertisements.
The inquiry will examine whether Booking.com properly identified and assessed “systemic risks” linked to illegal content on its platform, including fake listings for non-existent properties, impersonation fraud and accommodation offers that do not comply with rules, the Commission announced on Wednesday.
Officials will also look at what measures the company has in place to remove fraudulent and non-compliant listings and whether those measures effectively mitigate risks to consumers.
A second strand of the investigation focuses on phishing scams — attempts to trick people into handing over money or sensitive information — that exploit Booking.com’s reservation and guest data.
That includes scrutiny of how reservation and guest data is shared with accommodation providers, and the design and functioning of Booking.com’s messaging service, it said, alongside whether safeguards are sufficient to prevent misuse of data to solicit fraudulent payments.
Paid-for rankings and ad transparency
The Commission will also investigate whether “boosted listings” that appear more prominently in search results because accommodation providers pay a higher commission are clearly identifiable to users as advertisements.
Regulators will examine whether, for each advert shown on Booking.com, users can easily see who is behind it, who paid for it, why they are seeing it, and how to change settings that determine which ads they see.
If the suspected failures are proven, they could amount to infringements of EU rules requiring Very Large Online Platforms to assess and mitigate systemic risks and to ensure ads are clearly identifiable.
The Commission said it will now carry out an in-depth investigation, including gathering evidence through further requests for information and possible interviews or inspections, adding that opening proceedings does not prejudge the final outcome.
Booking.com was designated a “Very Large Online Platform” under the Digital Services Act on 25 April 2023.
