On the night of Wednesday 15 to Thursday 16 November, negotiators from the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the collection and sharing of data on short-term rentals.
The text provides for a free online registration procedure - or “at a proportionate cost” - for short-term rentals. Once registered, guests will receive a number certifying their registration and enabling them to place their property on the rental market. These numbers can be verified by the national competent authorities. For their part, the platforms will have to ensure that the registration number enables users to identify the property in question and that the information provided is reliable and exhaustive.
“The new regulation facilitates registration procedures for hosts”, said Spain's Minister for Tourism, Rosana Morillo Rodriguez, whose country has been directly affected by the effects of the emergence over the years of platforms such as Booking, Airbnb and Expedia in terms of overtourism, unfair competition and rising accommodation prices.
These platforms will have to carry out random checks to ensure that the information provided is correct. A compromise had to be reached on this point, as Parliament wanted the platforms to “make every effort” to assess the veracity of the information. The final compromise simply asks the companies concerned to “make reasonable efforts” to carry out checks.
In the event of non-compliance, the national authorities could then decide to suspend the registration number in question or ask the platforms to delete the host concerned. Penalties could be imposed on platforms and hosts alike.
One-stop shops to be set up no later than 24 months after the text comes into force
The Member States will have to set up a single point of contact to receive data from the platforms, such as the address, the corresponding registration number or the URL of the user’s registration. This data will have to be sent every month by the platforms.
“Until now, rental platforms have refused to share their data, making it difficult to apply local regulations. Fortunately, this law puts an end to this situation and gives cities back more control”, commented the rapporteur, Kim Van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA, Dutch).
The single points of contact - which were one of the key issues at the heart of the discussions during this final round of negotiations (‘trilogue’) - will have to be set up by the Member States within 24 months of the text coming into force. The European Parliament, which wanted this period to be set at 18 months, agreed to the wishes of the Council of the EU. On the other hand, the latter, which was in favour of setting up a common single point of contact, accepted that each Member State would have to set up a single entry point.
European Parliament and EU Council negotiators also agreed to exempt platforms with an average number of registrations of 4,250 or less.
In addition, the text has been aligned with the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13293/8) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see EUROPE 13275/19).
“The text will also be based on the Digital Services Act and will ensure that online rental platforms assume their responsibilities, share their data and contribute to the fight against illegal advertising”, said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
Until now, there have been no rules in this area. When it presented this legislative proposal on 7 November 2022, the Commission wanted to bring some order to a sector in which online platforms offering short-term rentals account for almost 25% of tourist accommodation in the EU. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)