Report from the Wall Street Journal
In Brief – The European Commission has begun a formal investigation into whether Booking breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately address online fraud and provide users with proper transparency into advertised offers on the platform. The investigation follows a preliminary review of Booking’s risk assessments, transparency reports and responses to Commission information requests. Reported scams on the platform increased 500% between 2022 and 2024, with fraud totaling €4.2 billion in 2024 according to the Commission. The investigation will assess whether the company properly identified and mitigated systemic risks associated with illegal content, including fake listings and phishing scams, and whether paid, boosted listings are appropriately recognizable as advertisements. The Commission can pursue further enforcement, impose interim measures, issue non-compliance decisions or accept commitments from Booking to remedy the concerns.
Context – The DSA regulates how digital platforms address a wide range of objectionable content and activity, including hate speech, disinformation, threats to children, as well as illegal, dangerous and fraudulent products and services. There are now 28 VLOPs, which are the very largest platforms that face the strictest rules and enforcement by the Commission. VLOPs currently subject to DSA investigations include social media platforms X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, marketplaces Shein and Temu, and four adult platforms accused of not adequately protecting minors. In September 2025, the Commission began preliminary reviews of how Apple, Booking, Google and Microsoft address scams and frauds, including how they detect and prevent them, how app stores prevent fake financial apps from imitating legitimate financial services apps, and how search engines police links and ads that direct users to scam sites. Booking is the first of the four to face more intense Commission scrutiny.