The EU Court rules that Airbnb is not a real estate company

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

The European Justice has ruled that Airbnb is not a real estate company.

The European Justice has ruled that Airbnb is not a real estate company and, therefore, should not be regulated according to the rules that apply to real estate agents because the platform, which it defines as “an information society service”, does not set the rental price.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) states in the judgment that Airbnb's activity falls within the scope of the 2000 Directive on electronic commerce, and considers that France, from which the complaint originated, cannot require Airbnb to have a professional real estate agent card, as it has not notified this national requirement to the Commission in accordance with the provisions of that European regulation.

The Association for professional accommodation and tourism in France argued that Airbnb Ireland is not limited to contacting two parties thanks to its digital platform, but that it exercised a real estate agent activity without being in possession of a professional card, infringing on that mode a national law that regulates the activities of professionals in the real estate sector, according to El Economista.

The court noted, however, that it has no information that Airbnb determines or limits the rental amount requested by the lessors that use its platform. And he said that other features offered by the platform do not call into question this conclusion.

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

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