Spain Goes After Airbnb

Spain's government has fined Airbnb $75 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals, officials said Monday. The move is the latest government action in Spain against short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com as the country grapples with a housing affordability problem, particularly in city centers, reports the AP. The consumer rights ministry said the rentals didn't include license numbers—a requirement in many regions in Spain—or listed license numbers that didn't match what authorities had. Others had incorrect information about hosts, it said.

Airbnb said that it plans to challenge the fine in court. The company said it was working with Spanish authorities to comply with a new national registration system for short-term rentals, and that more than 70,000 listings on the platform had added a registration number since January. Spain's leftist government and many Spaniards across the political spectrum see short-term rental companies as bearing responsibility for driving up housing costs.

The nation is one of the world's most visited countries, and short-term holiday rentals have cut into many cities' stretched supply of housing. "There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing crisis, while a few enrich themselves with business models that evict people from their homes," Spain's consumer rights minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said Monday. Local authorities in Barcelona have said they plan to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for residents.