Legal proceedings against Booking.com continue

Legal actions are accumulating against Booking.com, a major online accommodation booking platform. Following a previous breach identified by the watchdog group Oléron in 2025, which required the company to pay 574,000 euros for unpaid stay taxes to a local authority, a court in eastern France has ruled against the company again.

Nancy court finds tax collection failures

A court in Nancy issued a judgment dated October 20, 2026, which found that Booking.com had failed to properly collect stay taxes for the years 2022 to 2025. The Nancy metropolitan area analyzed the stay tax collection declarations submitted by the platform and found numerous irregularities, including "omissions and inaccuracies" between the first half of 2023 and the second half of 2025.

Court orders payment and fines

These errors amounted to 19,282 euros over three years. Additionally, 390 reservations made between 2023 and 2025 with non-professional hosts had not been subject to any tax collection. The court ordered Booking.com to pay 75,000 euros to the Nancy metropolitan area for calculation errors and a fine of 780,000 euros for the 390 omissions.

Limoges court demands more information

Another legal battle seems to be underway in Limoges, where a court ordered Booking.com in May 2026 to provide the concerned local authority with detailed files listing the stays made on its territory and information related to payments and reservations. The local authority, whose name was redacted, could be the ELAN intercommunal area, comprising 28,000 inhabitants.

Local authorities suspect incomplete tax transfers

According to a preliminary order, it suspects the company of not having transferred the full amount of stay taxes it collects. Since January 1, 2019, platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb, when acting as payment intermediaries, must collect the stay tax and transmit to local authorities the information necessary to control the amounts.

Ministry outlines legal obligations

In a response to a senator published July 4, 2019, the Ministry of Economy and Finance recalled the obligation of platforms like Booking.com to "transmit, like other accommodation providers and professionals, all necessary information for the control of the stay tax as specified in III of Article L. 2333-34." However, there are many cases where cities and conurbations have not received, in a timely manner, sufficiently detailed files to verify the proper collection and transfer of the stay tax.

Parliamentarians highlight ongoing issues

Deputy Louise Morel (6th constituency of Bas-Rhin) addressed the minister in charge of Public Accounts in August 2023 to signal the opacity of the platforms, mentioning the case of a mayor from Bas-Rhin who was unable to obtain from Airbnb details on the origin of the sums paid. Three years later, another parliamentarian, Jean-Luc Bourgeaux, deputy of the 7th constituency of Ille-et-Vilaine, addressed the minister in charge of Tourism on this issue.

Booking.com faces delays and incomplete reports

He noted a transfer by Booking outside the regulatory deadlines for the tax collected in the second half of 2025. The transfer was made on January 16, 2026, instead of by December 31, 2025 at the latest, as stipulated in Article L. 2333-34 of the CGCT. He also noted that the declaration statement only reached Saint-Malo Agglomération on February 2, 2026, after the payment, and that the document was incomplete.

Government acknowledges challenges but reaffirms support

A response from Serge Papin, the minister in charge of Tourism, was published on October 27, 2026. He acknowledged the operational difficulties encountered by some local authorities on this issue but recalled the experiment with the FARITAS tool, to Facilitate the Recovery of Tax and the Stay Tax, as well as the possibility for local authorities to take legal action. He concluded that "The Government remains fully mobilized to support local authorities in the exercise of their responsibilities and will ensure the full effectiveness of the legal obligations applicable to digital platforms."