The tech industry has spent years leaning on a comfortably simple defence: we just run the digital marketplace, sellers supply the content. The European Commission is currently calling time on that defence, and the outcome might carry an eye-watering price tag.
On 21 October, the Commission opened a formal probe into Booking.com under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The investigation targets how the site handles fake property listings, phishing scams and sponsored search rankings. Booking.com says it’s cooperating fully, and the Commission hasn’t determined that any breach has taken place. If one is confirmed, the fine can reach 6% of its global annual turnover.
Fake Listings, Leaky Data And Hidden Ads
The investigation has three strands.
First on the agenda is the recurring issue of fake listings. This includes fictitious properties, impersonation scams and offers operating outside the law. Officials are weighing up how proactively the company spots and handles these before consumers get burned.
The second is phishing and reservation data. Regulators are looking closely at how guest data is shared with hosts, how the messaging service works and what safeguards stop that information being misused for fraudulent payment requests.
The third is paid search placement. The Commission is testing if listings boosted in search results were clearly labelled as adverts, including who paid and why they appeared so prominently.
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The DSA Makes Scams The Platform’s Problem
Booking.com has been designated a Very Large Online Platform under the DSA since April 2023. Platforms in this tier must meet rigorous standards for spotting systemic risks and keeping operations transparent. Regulators didn’t launch this formal probe on a whim; it follows a preliminary review of its risk-assessment reports from 2023 to 2026, plus information requests in September 2025 and May 2026.
There’s also no fixed deadline for the investigation to finish. The Commission can order interim measures, adopt a non-compliance decision or accept commitments from the platform to fix its concerns without a formal ruling. The 6% figure only applies if an infringement is established, so it’s a ceiling rather than a forecast.
The Commission has also been investigating Meta since April 2024 over deceptive advertising on Facebook and Instagram. This new case applies the same regulatory logic to travel marketplaces.
A Preview Of The Questions Every Marketplace Gets Asked
The DSA places its toughest demands on tech giants, but the questions in this case travel well. Regulators are looking at how well a marketplace spots fake hosts before customers complain. Expecting proactive prevention instead of taking action only after receiving reports sets a far higher operational bar.
Guest data gets the same scrutiny. Booking details and in-platform messages are exactly what a scammer needs to pass as a genuine host, which is why the Commission is looking at how that information flows. Paid ranking is treated as advertising that users must be able to recognise, so search results face the same labelling expectations as any other ad.
The pressure isn’t only coming from regulators. Research by Opinium for payments company emerchantpay found that 34% of holidaymakers have seen more potentially fraudulent travel content on social media over the past 12 months.
George Ralchev, Head of Risk at emerchantpay, said: “As a result, consumers are exercising more caution when booking holidays. Seven in ten (70%) consumers say they are wary of promotional emails related to holidays due to concerns about potential scams, and half (50%) prefer to book holidays with online or high street travel businesses if they clearly explain how they are protecting consumers from fraud.”
From ‘We Just Host It’ To ‘Show Us The Work’
Whatever the outcome, the direction is clear. A platform that earns money from listings, ads and bookings is now expected to show what it did to keep fraud out, and not only what it removed afterwards.
With no deadline, this could end in commitments, a non-compliance decision or something in between. Other marketplaces will read the result closely, because it will show how much evidence of risk work a regulator expects to see before it’s satisfied.
