{"id":106997,"date":"2025-12-15T17:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=106997"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:14:54","slug":"airbnb-fined-56m-by-spain-for-advertising-unlicensed-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=106997","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb fined \u00a356m by Spain for advertising unlicensed properties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 11 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The Spanish government has fined property rentals giant Airbnb \u20ac64m (\u00a356m) for advertising unlicensed apartments.<\/p>\n

It also said that some of the properties advertised in the popular tourist destination were banned from being rented.<\/p>\n

The fine means that Airbnb has to withdraw the adverts promoting unlicensed properties. Although the Consumer Affairs Ministry said the fine cannot be appealed, Airbnb said it intends to challenge it in court.<\/p>\n

Spain, one of the most visited countries in the world, has a buoyant tourism economy but that has fuelled concerns about unaffordable housing, as high demand from visitors raises the price of housing, pushing local people out of the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are thousands of families who are living on the edge due to housing, while a few get rich with business models that expel people from their homes,\u201d said Spain\u2019s consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy in a statement.<\/p>\n

But Airbnb said in a statement that it was \u201cconfident that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs\u2019 actions are contrary to applicable regulations in Spain\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson added that since short-term rental regulations in Spain changed in July, Airbnb was \u201cclosely collaborating with Spain\u2019s Ministry of Housing to support the enforcement of the new national registration system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Like many countries, Spain\u2019s government is concerned about how short-term holiday lets can change a neighbourhood, fuelled by a transient population of holiday-goers.<\/p>\n

The country has been fighting a battle with thousands of Airbnb listings, banning them and clamping down on how many properties the firm can advertise. In May,\u00a0there were demonstrations against the firm\u00a0ahead of the busy summer season.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s government said 65,122 adverts on Airbnb breached consumer rules, including promotion of properties that were not licensed to be rented, and properties whose licence number did not match with those on official registers.<\/p>\n

Writing on social network Bluesky, Mr Bustinduy said: \u201cWe\u2019ll prove it as many times as necessary: no company, no matter how big or powerful, is above the law. Even less so when it comes to housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Globally, several popular tourist cities place heavy restriction on Airbnb, including Barcelona, New York, Berlin, Paris and even San Francisco, where Airbnb was founded.<\/p>\n

The tech firm started up in 2007 but became hugely popular around 2014, as tourists looked for cheap accommodation without the tax costs imposed on hotels.<\/p>\n

Users swelled as anybody could become a \u201chost\u201d and make some extra cash from renting out their spare room \u2013 though many major cities have since placed limits on these types of rentals, as complaints of noisy house parties and absent hosts became an issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AirbnbThe Spanish government has fined property rentals giant Airbnb \u20ac64m (\u00a356m) for advertising unlicensed apartments.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13941,1910,10,9,2488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airbnb","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-spain"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}