MADRID
\nSpain\u2019s leftist government said Monday it had fined Airbnb more than 64 million euros ($75 million), notably for posting listings for banned rental properties, at a time the country faces a housing crisis.
\nThe fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must \u201ccorrect the violations by deleting illegal content.\u201d
\nThe ministry said 65,122 adverts on Airbnb breached consumer rules, including the promotion of properties without a license or those whose license number did not match with data in registers.
\nThe fine is equivalent to six times the illegal profit made by Airbnb between the time the company was warned about the offending adverts and before they were taken down, the ministry added.
\nA tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fueled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government.
\nThe world\u2019s second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024 and is on course to surpass that figure this year.
\nBut residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighborhoods.
\nIn June, the consumer rights ministry also ordered online accommodation giant Booking.com to take down more than 4,000 illegal adverts.
\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 far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy said in the ministry statement.
\n\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 he added on social network Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID Spain\u2019s leftist government said Monday it had fined Airbnb more than 64 million euros ($75 million), notably for posting listings for banned rental properties, at a time the country faces a housing crisis. The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must \u201ccorrect the violations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-520236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n