European Commission opens DSA fraud probe into Booking.com
Original title: EU wants Booking.com to check out of its scam problem
Officials cite Booking.com’s June 2024 report of a 500–900 percent rise in travel scams and more than 1,000 Dutch fraud notices.
The European Commission opened a Digital Services Act investigation on Wednesday into whether Booking.com, a platform with more than 45 million EU users, does enough to stop fraudulent listings, phishing, smishing, and social engineering. Officials also question protection of consumer and business-user data and whether ads and paid ranking boosts are clearly distinguished from organic results. They point to Booking.com’s June 2024 admission of a 500–900 percent jump in travel scams and to Dutch figures of more than 1,000 fraud notifications and €82,000 in damage in early 2026. Booking.com says it is cooperating fully.
Unconfirmed: Commission officials call Booking.com’s fraud controls substandard; the company has not accepted that assessment.
- Fake listings include people renting premises they do not own.
- Account takeovers let scammers message guests and demand extra payments.
- Dutch fraud notices in early 2026 were a tenfold increase, with €82,000 reported damage.
- Officials want faster listing removal, license checks, and changes to owner onboarding.
- Products
- Booking.com
- Organizations
- European Commission
- Countries
- Netherlands
From the original article
2 min read at theregister.comCommission opens DSA probe into fake listings and phishing on the platform, says its fraud defenses 'absolutely substandard'
By Paul Kunert · theregister.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.