EU opens DSA investigation into Booking.com

The European Commission opened formal proceedings against Booking.com on October 21, 2026, to investigate whether the travel platform complied with the Digital Services Act in its handling of fraudulent listings, phishing risks and paid search placements. The inquiry will examine whether Booking.com adequately assessed and mitigated risks from listings for nonexistent properties, impersonation and accommodation offers that may not comply with applicable requirements. Regulators will also review whether the company’s safeguards protect reservation and guest data shared with accommodation providers from misuse in phishing scams and fraudulent payment requests. A third focus is the visibility of paid listings. Accommodation providers can pay higher commissions to appear more prominently in search results. The Commission will assess whether users can identify those placements as advertisements, including who paid for them and why they were shown. The proceedings follow a preliminary review of Booking.com’s risk assessments covering 2023 through 2026, its transparency reports and responses to information requests sent on September 23, 2025, and May 26, 2026. The Commission said it...