The Dutch company Booking.com BV was sentenced on Monday (18/10) by the French court with fine 1,234,000 euros for non-compliance with the tourist code, an amount that will be paid in full to the municipality of Paris.
A Paris court ruled that Booking had “disregarded” certain provisions of the French Tourist Code by not passing on much information to the City of Paris, in particular the number of days rented furnished tourist accommodation.
The municipality of Paris, which demanded a fine of more than 150 million euros, had filed a lawsuit against Booking in early 2021, claiming that he had not received the required information “within the prescribed period”.
“Booking.com BV proves that, in a compliance process, it provided the required information”, explains the court decision, which, however, considers that the company “delayed” the disclosure of the data requested by the municipality.
“Thus, contrary to the request of the municipality of Paris, which requested a deterrent sanction, the fine imposed should be set at a reduced amount,” the court ruling clarified.
The full amount of the fine will be paid to the City of Paris “Pursuant to the tourist code”.
The reaction of the company
“We are disappointed with the decision (…) on the exchange of data between Booking.com and the City of Paris,” the Dutch company reacted. He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.
Asked about her intention to appeal, the Booking platform said it was “exploring all its options”.
“This condemnation is” a sign that the impunity that has long benefited these (detention) platforms is coming to an end, “Jan Brosa, Paris’ deputy mayor in charge of housing, told AFP.
In July, the City of Paris won a fine against another online booking platform, Airbnb, which was fined more than € 8 million for keeping ads from 2017 without the required number of subscriptions, on the same day that the platform announced that it would make this number mandatory for all its ads in Paris.
And in September 2020, the French capital achieved a major victory: the Court of Justice of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, had ruled in accordance with European law “national regulations requiring the issuance of a permit for short-term rental housing”.
Many European cities, such as Paris, are struggling to legislate to regulate rental accommodation on platforms such as Airbnb or its competitors such as Abritel / Homeaway.
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