BRUSSELS: The European Commission has opened an investigation into whether the online travel platform Booking.com violated EU law by failing to diligently combat fraudulent listings and phishing scams.
"Fake listings, such as for non-existent properties, impersonation fraud, and non-compliant accommodation offers may have negative effects on consumer protection," a press release says.
In addition, the probe aims to assess whether Booking.com has done enough to protect users from phishing scams, which are fraudulent attempts to steal sensitive user data.
"Europeans should be able to book their holidays without fear of being scammed," says European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen in a statement.
EU law "sets clear responsibilities on platforms to address these risks, and we must ensure that the leading booking platform in Europe takes those responsibilities seriously," Virkkunen says.
The commission suspects that Booking.com has breached the European Union (EU)'s Digital Services Act (DSA) by not correctly handling the dissemination of illegal content on its platform and ultimately failing to remove fraudulent listings.
The commission plans to investigate "the way reservation and guest data is shared with accommodation providers, and the design and functioning of Booking.com's messaging service" and whether the platform's safeguards are sufficient to prevent data from being misused.
The probe will also look into possible breaches of advertising transparency obligations.
Accommodation providers can make their listings more visible on the platform Booking.com by paying a higher commission, but the commission has concerns that these entries were not clearly recognisable as advertisements.
The Commission could ultimately impose a fine on Booking.com if the investigation concludes that the platform has breached the DSA. – dpa
