The European Commission opened formal proceedings on 21 October to assess whether Booking.com breached the Digital Services Act. The investigation looks at whether the platform properly assessed and mitigated risks from fake listings and phishing attacks that exploit booking and guest data. It also examines whether listings that pay for higher ranking in search results are clearly labelled as advertising. Opening proceedings does not prejudge the outcome.

What it means: Booking.com is designated a very large online platform, so it has heightened duties to identify and mitigate systemic risks to users. Scams using fake messages that appear to come from the hotel or the platform and ask for card details have become very common, and they often use real booking data, which makes them convincing. The Commission will examine whether the platform did enough to prevent this. The second strand, on paid listings, concerns transparency: users must know when a top position is due to payment. For Greece the issue matters directly, since thousands of hotels and rentals rely on Booking.com for a large share of their bookings. Hospitality businesses should protect their extranet accounts with strong authentication, tell guests they never ask for card details through links, and report suspicious messages immediately. If the investigation finds a breach, fines can reach 6% of global turnover, and changes to how the platform works may also be imposed.

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