A commission official said Booking.com should be carrying out risk assessments and acting to prevent fraud as required under the DSA. \u201cWe feel that what they have done is absolutely substandard,\u201d said the official. \u201cAlthough they take measures, they could go much further and they could have much more solid systems to prevent fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
EU officials will also investigate whether Booking.com has breached advertising transparency rules, by potentially not making clear to users that some accommodation providers had paid to make their business more visible on the website.<\/p>\n
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission\u2019s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. Photograph: Olivier Matthys\/EPA<\/p>\n
Under the EU\u2019s DSA, which aims to protect people<\/a> from harmful and illegal internet content, a company could be fined 6% of its worldwide annual turnover.<\/p>\n The commission said that opening the investigation did not prejudge the outcome.<\/p>\n Booking.com, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and claims to have 28m accommodation listings, said it was engaging constructively with the commission. \u201cSecurity, trust and the protection of personal information are top priorities at Booking.com,\u201d a company spokesperson said. \u201cWe remain committed to working with relevant governments, regulators, law enforcement and industry partners to \u200ccombat cybercrime and online fraud, and protect travellers and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigation comes after researchers at the UK consumer group Which? exposed security lapses at Booking.com when they used the site to set up \u2013 and accept payment for<\/a> \u2013 a fake offer to stay at 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n EU officials are investigating similar scams, with less high-profile addresses, where consumers thought they had booked a stay, only to find on arrival at a property that it had been fraudulently listed on Booking.com.<\/p>\n Officials are also assessing a second category of scams, dubbed \u201creservation hijacks\u201d where scammers use hacked data to impersonate an accommodation provider. Criminals send WhatsApp messages and have even used Booking.com\u2019s own platform to request payments from Booking.com\u2019s customers, supposedly to secure a stay. Cases seen by Guardian Money in 2025 <\/a>involved the theft of several hundred pounds.<\/p>\n EU officials will examine whether the company has sufficient safeguards to prevent data from being misused.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The Dutch consumer association Consumentenbond said it had received 200 reports of scams costing people \u20ac65,000 that involved Booking.com<\/a> in 2025, up from 89 reports worth \u20ac25,000 the previous year. These cases were \u201cjust the tip of the iceberg\u201d, it said, as many victims would not report to its fraud helpdesk.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792621940_349_500.jpg\")
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