{"id":71723,"date":"2026-10-25T17:16:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T15:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lhr-law.de\/?p=71723"},"modified":"2026-10-29T22:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:40:35","slug":"booking-com-dsa-proceedings-fake-listings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lhr-law.de\/en\/magazine-en\/data-protection-law\/booking-com-dsa-proceedings-fake-listings\/","title":{"rendered":"EU proceedings against Booking.com: fake listings, phishing and paid ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ScepticalNon-existent holiday flats, fraudulent payment requests and properties that rank higher in exchange for commission: on 21 October 2026 the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Booking.com under the Digital Services Act. Hosts, travellers and other platforms should take a close look, because the standard applied reaches far beyond the travel industry.<\/em><\/p>\n

The European Commission wants to establish whether Booking.com has adequately assessed and mitigated the risks of fraud on its platform. A second question is whether users can recognise that certain properties appear prominently only because the provider pays for it. Booking.com has been designated a very large online platform (VLOP) since 25 April 2023 and is therefore subject to the strictest obligations of the Digital Services Act (DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022\/2065<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The key points:<\/p>\n