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Spain Fines Airbnb €64 Million and Orders 65,122 Illegal Listings Removed

Officials say the sanction equals six times illicit profit to reinforce a drive to protect housing.

Overview

  • Spain’s consumer affairs ministry said the decision is final and requires Airbnb to delete the 65,122 offending listings.
  • Authorities found adverts lacking required licence numbers, using numbers that did not match official registers, or providing incorrect host information.
  • The penalty reflects six times the profit the ministry says Airbnb earned from the listings after it was warned, and it is the ministry’s second-largest consumer fine.
  • Airbnb says it withdrew about 65,000 listings earlier in the year, has added registration numbers to tens of thousands of ads, and will challenge the fine in court.
  • The action is part of a broader crackdown tied to housing affordability concerns, including prior takedown orders for Booking.com and Barcelona’s plan to phase out roughly 10,000 tourist apartments by 2028.