The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached an agreement, on the night of Wednesday 15 to Thursday 16 November, to strengthen transparency in the collection of data on short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb, announced the European Council, which represents the Twenty-Seven, on Thursday.
This new regulation “creates a simple and easy set of information rules for platforms and makes the registration process easier for hosts”welcomed Rosenna Morillo Rodriguez, Spanish Secretary of State for Tourism, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
This improvement in transparency “will build confidence for users” and make it possible to fight against “illegal activities”, she added. The main platform in this sector, Airbnb said “in favor of European regulation”stressing that she had launched an appeal to this effect “from 2021”.
“These rules will serve as global examples for the regulation of short-term rentals and provide clear guidance to platforms and authorities”, said the platform. These measures will help the authorities have sufficient information to better control the activity of these short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb.
The agreement must still be formally adopted
The latter was the subject of a seizure of 779 million euros by the Italian authorities who accuse it of not having collected a tax on rental income received by owners between 2017 and 2021. These digital platforms will therefore have to transmit every month in an automated manner, data on the number of nights rented and customers to the public authorities.
These measures will “ensure local communities have the information they need to support sustainable development of the short-term rental sector”welcomed the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
According to the European Commission, which initiated this proposal, these measures will harmonize host registration requirements. Once registered, guests will receive a unique registration number, which will be displayed and verified. The agreement still needs to be formally adopted by the two institutions. Member States will then have two years to apply the directive.