Booking.com could face substantial penalties if regulators establish violations of Europe's Digital Services Act.
Millions of travellers rely on Booking.com to reserve hotels, apartments and holiday accommodation. But the European Union is now investigating whether the platform has done enough to protect customers from fraud.

On 21 October, the European Commission opened formal proceedings under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The investigation examines three potentially serious problems: fraudulent accommodation listings, phishing scams exploiting reservation information, and paid search placements that may not be clearly identified as advertisements.
Booking.com has not been found guilty of violating the law and says it is cooperating with regulators.

The platform connects travellers with more than 30 million accommodation options worldwide and has processed approximately 6.5 billion bookings since 2010.
Its enormous scale makes customer trust particularly important.

“Millions of Listings, Billions of Reservations Headquartered in Amsterdam, Booking.com operates one of the world's largest accommodation marketplaces.”

EuroAsia.News, reporting from Brussels

A fraudulent listing on a small website may affect a limited number of people. But weaknesses in a platform serving millions of travellers can expose consumers across multiple countries.
Under the EU's Digital Services Act, very large online platforms must identify and mitigate systemic risks, including those arising from illegal content and fraudulent activity.

Booking.com received that designation in April 2023.
Fake Hotels and Properties That Do Not Exist
The first part of the investigation concerns accommodation listings that may be fraudulent, misleading or non-compliant.
Examples include properties that do not exist, accommodation advertised by people who are not authorised to rent it, and fraudsters impersonating legitimate property owners.

A traveller may complete a reservation, pay for accommodation and discover only upon arrival that the advertised property is unavailable or fictitious.
Such incidents can cause financial losses and disrupt international travel.
The Commission will examine whether Booking.com has adequately identified these risks and whether its systems remove fraudulent listings effectively.
The existence of scams does not automatically establish a legal violation. Regulators must assess what preventative measures the platform was required to take and whether it met those obligations.

Payment Scams Using Genuine Booking Information
The second concern involves phishing.
Criminals can impersonate hotels or accommodation providers and contact customers with convincing requests for additional payments.
A traveller might receive a message stating that a credit card must be verified or a reservation will be cancelled.
The message may contain accurate booking dates, accommodation details or other information that makes the request appear legitimate.

Victims can then be redirected to fraudulent payment websites.
The Commission is examining the risks created by sharing reservation and guest data with accommodation providers, together with safeguards in Booking.com's messaging system.
The central question is whether criminals can exploit these systems to obtain payments or sensitive personal information.

Artificial Intelligence Makes Scams More Convincing
Online fraud has become more sophisticated as criminals gain access to automated tools capable of producing professional-looking messages.
AI-generated text can imitate customer-service communications without the grammatical errors traditionally associated with phishing.
Booking.com has previously reported substantial increases in certain scam attempts involving AI-generated content.

The challenge for online travel companies is therefore expanding beyond identifying obviously suspicious messages.
Platforms must consider account security, reservation-data protection, unusual payment requests and attempts to redirect customers outside verified payment channels.
Regulators will examine whether Booking.com's risk-management systems have kept pace with these threats.

Are Travellers Seeing Advertising Without Knowing It?
The third investigation concerns transparency in search results.
Hotels and accommodation providers can sometimes increase their visibility on Booking.com by agreeing to pay higher commissions.
The European Commission wants to establish whether consumers are clearly informed when a listing appears more prominently because of such an arrangement.
Under the Digital Services Act, advertisements must be identifiable.

Users should also be able to understand who paid for an advertisement and why they are seeing it.
If a hotel appears at the top of search results, travellers may assume it has been selected because of its relevance, quality or value.
But paid prominence introduces a commercial consideration.
The Commission will investigate whether Booking.com's presentation provides sufficient transparency.

What Does Booking.com Say?
The company says security, trust and protection of personal information remain priorities.
It has confirmed that it is engaging constructively with the European Commission.

Booking.com also says it works with governments, law-enforcement authorities and industry partners to combat cybercrime and protect both travellers and accommodation providers.
The investigation will assess those safeguards against the platform's legal obligations.
It does not establish that Booking.com knowingly facilitated fraud.

Could the Company Face a Major Fine?
Under the Digital Services Act, serious violations may result in fines of up to 6% of a company's worldwide annual turnover.
For a multinational technology business, such a penalty could be substantial.

However, 6% represents the legal maximum, not a fine proposed or imposed in this investigation.
The Commission may request additional information, conduct interviews and inspections, or require corrective measures.
It can also accept legally binding commitments from the company.

No conclusion date has been announced.
Why This Matters Beyond Booking.com
The investigation could have implications for online marketplaces across Europe.
Hotels increasingly depend on digital platforms for customer acquisition.

Travellers depend on those same platforms for reliable information, secure payments and trustworthy reviews.
If customers cannot reliably distinguish genuine accommodation offers from fraudulent listings, confidence in digital tourism is weakened.
Similarly, if paid rankings are insufficiently transparent, consumers may misunderstand why certain businesses appear prominently.
The issues therefore concern the integrity of online marketplaces, not merely one travel company.

A Test of Europe's Digital Rules
The EU has introduced extensive regulations intended to make large technology platforms more accountable.
The Booking.com proceedings will test how those rules are applied to practical consumer risks.

Regulators must determine whether the company's systems sufficiently prevent and mitigate fraud while remaining proportionate to the scale of the platform.
Booking.com has helped transform how the world travels. The investigation now asks whether its safeguards and advertising disclosures are keeping pace with the responsibilities that come with that influence.

For travellers, the fundamental expectation remains simple: an accommodation listing should be genuine, payment requests should be secure, and advertising should be clearly identifiable.