The Govern of the Generalitat and the Catalan tourism sector showed their disagreement on Monday with the Supreme Court ruling that exempts Airbnb from removing illegal tourist accommodation ads. The Departament de Empresa i Treball, CONFECAT, PIMEC Turisme, Foment, Acave, Turalcat and the Federació Catalana de Campings have expressed their opposition to the Supreme Court ruling that annuls the order of the Direcció General de Turisme from 2015 that forced Airbnb to remove more than 14,000 ads for tourist accommodation that were not registered in the Tourism Registry of Catalonia. The registration number is mandatory under Catalan regulations to identify establishments and as a legal guarantee.
The tourism sector and the Govern consider that the sentence “negatively affects the companies that carry out their activity legally, the local communities, the tourists themselves and the administrations“, considering that the requirement did not imply an “excessive control” over the company.
The Government considers that the obligation to publish the identification number of the Register of Catalonia as required by the Catalan law is an appropriate measure since the registration code is a certificate of legality. While the legal framework has been applied, the withdrawal of tens of thousands of advertisements from operators was undertaken. Likewise, 1,706 sanctioning proceedings have been opened against people who were carrying out their accommodation activity in an irregular manner. Of these, 1,530 were resolved with the imposition of fines of between 3,001 and 30,000 euros, with a total amount exceeding 9.2 million euros.
In the regulatory field, the Govern announces that it will “defend the Catalan position in the changes being made in the future European law on Digital Services (Digital Services Act) which amends the E-Commerce Directive 2000/31 referred to in the Supreme Court ruling”. Also in the regulatory field, it will defend that the future European regulation of short-term accommodation “defines equitable and fair conditions for all economic actors”.
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