The European Commission opened an investigation into the hotel reservation platform Booking on Wednesday to verify whether it has taken sufficient measures to protect its customers against misleading advertisements and online scams. Brussels also criticizes the site for a potential breach of its advertising transparency obligations, regarding “boosted” ads, a paid function which gives establishments better visibility on the platform.
This is the first procedure launched by the EU targeting the platform based in the Netherlands (and subsidiary of the American group Booking Holdings), under the powerful European law on digital services, the DSA. “Europeans must be able to book their holidays without fear of being scammed,” said Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the Commission in charge of Digital Affairs, in a press release.
Booking “fully cooperates”
This digital law imposes “very clear responsibilities” on platforms, and they must “take them seriously,” she insisted. For its part, the platform stressed to AFP that it “cooperates fully with the European Commission and responds constructively to its questions”.
“Security, trust and the protection of personal data are top priorities,” and “we remain committed to working with relevant governments, regulators, law enforcement and industry stakeholders to combat cybercrime and online fraud and protect travelers and our partners,” the company adds.
Reservations in apartments that do not exist
If the investigation concludes that the company has committed one or more violations, Booking could potentially be fined. The platform will, however, have the opportunity to defend itself and propose measures to respond to the problems raised by Brussels. In detail, the EU wants to verify whether Booking has put in place adequate measures to combat the publication of fraudulent advertisements, to the detriment of consumers.
In some cases, these are advertisements for completely fictitious apartments, with customers only discovering on arrival that the place they thought they had reserved simply does not exist. Or, a more common phenomenon, the advertisements are misleading, because the photos or the description are not faithful to reality.
Phishing
In addition, Brussels suspects Booking of not sufficiently protecting users against phishing attempts. These are scammers who exploit data available on the platform, by registering as a host. They then use this information to try to trick customers into making money, for example by posing as a host.
Finally, Brussels will look into the operation of “boosted ads”, this functionality which allows accommodation providers to increase the visibility of their ads in search results on the Booking.com site, by paying a higher commission to the site. “Users should be able to clearly recognize that these ‘boosted ads’ are in reality advertisements,” said the European executive.
This procedure is based in particular on a significant number of testimonies and complaints against the platform, from customers who have been victims of scams, particularly in the Netherlands and in other European countries. “Numerous complaints have been filed, in particular by consumer associations and hotel organizations,” said a Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
