Court forces Airbnb to withdraw 2,700 ads of illegal apartments in Tarragona, Spain

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

A ruling from the TSJC states that the rental platform has a local structure and must comply with the Catalan standard. In Catalonia, it must eliminate 12,000 houses that lack registration.

The tourist flats platform must remove in the province 2,706 illegal advertisements that are placed on its website. Either they do not have the Turisme de Catalunya Registration Number (NRTC) or there is a wrong one. It is the statistics of the Catalan Tourism Agency after the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has given the reason to the General Directorate of Tourism for demanding that the housing giant complies with Catalan regulations.

Thus, you must stop advertising the homes without registration number, which proves their legality. The measure affects 12,000 ads in Catalonia. 22% of irregular ads are located in the province, where Airbnb and other platforms have an important specific weight as intermediaries in the tourist rental.

This confrontation has lasted five years. In March 2014, Turisme initiated administrative proceedings against Airbnb Ireland (ABBI) and Airbnb Online Services Spain SL - now Airbnb Marketing Services - (AMS) to eliminate advertising of unregistered homes.

The company appealed. Airbnb claimed that the Barcelona headquarters was only in charge of local marketing and that it did not carry out a tourist activity but also technological operations. He also argued that Catalan legislation violated the directive 2000/31 / EC of electronic commerce and the law of services of the Information Society. He also argued that the services were connector, not intermediary. The ruling of the TSJC, to which the Diari has had access, argues that the platform "is not merely an electronic bulletin board on which users operate by negotiating and closing transactions."

The judicial resolution also refers to registration as an "instrument" for the "protection of the rights of the recipients of services" and also for "the fight against fraud." In that sense, the court ruling says that "there are pronouncements that reflect the problem generated by the offer as tourist homes of those who do not have that condition" and refers to the "sublet of housing without the knowledge of the owner and the consequent fraud to consumers."

Active role in the fabric

The judge ends up accepting the resolution "which obliges Irish and Spanish society, both of the Airbnb group, to remove from the web those homes that are offered as tourist and do not have such a condition." In sum, the sentence concludes that the Barcelona headquarters of Airbnb has an active role in the business network and, therefore, must abide by the territorial rules. The decision of the TSJC recognizes the active role of the firm in hiring: "The recruitment of bidders (or "hosts") is made in Spain through the company Airbnb Marketing Services, whose sole shareholder is the parent company, so that without the activity of this one could hardly offer homes located in Spain."

Finally, the contentious-administrative room, section five, of the TSJC dismissed the demands filed from Barcelona and Ireland, confirming the resolutions appealed by both and giving the reason to Turisme.

The Generalitat itself maintains that it is not against the model or the new formats of the tourism business. This is stated in the sentence: "It does not deny the plaintiff who can carry out the intermediation activity, but considers that it cannot offer as tourist dwellings those that are not, understanding that only those that are registered have that condition".

Legality influences the price

In a similar line the tourism sector is expressed. “Everything that is to pursue what is not legalized is very positive. If you put a legal and an illegal floor on a platform, the price factor decants, ”explains Joan Calvet, president of the Associació d’Artartaments Turístics Costa Daurada.

Calvet sees on Airbnb a welcome format as long as the regulations are complied with: “It cannot be that someone is publishing something illegal in the market. We have associates that work with Airbnb. It is a positive factor, as long as the ads that are placed are all legal, with your registration number ».

The Generalitat is not opposed to this business model but claims legality in the records

In Catalonia, Airbnb must withdraw 5,343 floors without a number and another 6,478 with a number that does not coincide with official records, adding that total of 11,821. Airbnb has woven alliances in the tourism sector, while its role as an emblematic company in the so-called collaborative economy has been increasingly in doubt. Experts emphasize that these models are far from the patterns that are understood as such. «You have to distinguish between the platform economy, which is nothing more than the business of companies that live on the Internet, and exchange media, which are usually free or" quid pro quo ", and with a more limited scope", Sergio Nasarre, Professor of Civil Law and director of the Housing Department of the URV.

Mayo Fuster, director of research on collaborative economics at the UOC, insists on this line: «The work of these platforms cannot be described as collaborative, because it acts more like a large company. There is no logic of sharing a resource, no peer to peer relationships predominate and it is not even based on open knowledge. For Fuster, only a part of the offers generated on these platforms can be classified as collaborative economics: "It is not about going against innovation but the collaborative has to meet requirements such as a social responsibility for impacts or" open source ". The data is not provided, unless “scrapping” techniques are made to obtain them and the user cannot make that information portable, it is as if it were enclosed ”.

Although there are approaches with the sector, hotel employers have accused the platform of being the nest of illegal apartments that evade their tax obligations, thereby managing to offer more competitive prices by staying outside the regulatory framework. The company admits to having moved from the initial collaborative spirit to professionalization.

In a recent statement, Airbnb has said that this year it will reinforce the rules of behavior among travelers, hosts and cities around the world where it operates, to avoid excessive noise, unauthorized guests, parking not allowed, smoking and dirt that Require cleaning after payment. In addition, during 2020 it will specify a type of direct communication "where mayors and municipal officials will be able to connect with the appropriate Airbnb representatives" about these new policies, according to the platform's statement. The guest who fails to comply with the new rules will receive a first warning and "any further violation of the rules may result in the suspension or deletion of the account."

To determine defaults, Airbnb will accept information directly from the hosts or neighbors, through the Airbnb Neighborhood Tool or the next direct neighbor line of the platform. The website does not prohibit authorized events (there are guests who book ads to host meetings that respect their rules and neighbors), but “open invitation” parties are prohibited in private homes and multi-family residences (for single-family homes, the hosts set the rules of the house in coherence with the community). The exception will be made with the ads of traditional accommodation listed on Airbnb (such as boutique hotels and venues for professional events), which can set their rules at open parties, although complaints will also be addressed.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.