Booking.com Is Being Asked How Many Fake Listings Slip Through

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against Booking.com to determine whether the platform breached the EU’s Digital Services Act. Regulators will examine whether the company diligently assessed and mitigated the risks tied to fraudulent listings and phishing scams on its marketplace.

The Commission’s concerns fall into three areas. The first is fake listings, including properties that do not exist, impersonation fraud and offers that do not comply with the rules. The second is phishing, particularly how reservation and guest data is shared with accommodation providers and passes through Booking.com’s messaging tools. The third is advertising transparency, including whether users can tell an ad from a regular result.

The preliminary review drew on the company’s risk assessments from 2023 through 2026, its transparency reports and its answers to information requests sent in September 2025 and May 2026. Booking.com has been classed as a very large online platform since April 2023, which brings stricter duties. Penalties for a violation can reach 6 percent of global annual turnover, though the case could also end with binding commitments instead of a formal ruling.

A Booking.com spokesperson said the company is cooperating fully and stressed its work on security and fraud prevention. The probe follows an April disclosure that unauthorized parties had accessed customer names, contact details and booking information. For travelers, the practical lesson is unchanged: keep payments and messages inside the official app, and be wary of any request to move the conversation elsewhere.

Sources: Travel Weekly