EU Commission opens proceedings against Booking.com over scams
Brussels is examining under the Digital Services Act whether the booking platform does enough against fake listings, phishing and unlabelled advertising.
Archive image · Photo: EmDee / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The European Commission on Wednesday opened formal proceedings against Booking.com under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It suspects the platform has not diligently assessed and mitigated the risks posed by fraudulent listings and phishing. Specifically, the case concerns fake or non-compliant accommodation listings and scams that exploit reservation and guest data.
A third issue concerns paid placements: providers allegedly paid for higher positions in search results without these being clearly identifiable as advertisements. In the Commission’s view, this could breach the DSA’s transparency rules.