Airbnb, a blow in Spain: the court says no to discounts, 64 million to be paid immediately

An annotated code on a form, replicated thousands of times to circumvent restrictions, which, however, does not refer to any real authorization or, worse, is completely nonexistent. It is in these cracks of the short-term rental system, fueled by misleading data, that the axe of the Spanish judiciary has fallen.

The High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has rejected the request from Airbnb to suspend the massive fine of 64,055,311 euros imposed last December. No postponement or delay pending the merits of the case: the California-based platform must pay the full amount immediately. The decision, while not addressing the heart of the controversy regarding the company's liability, establishes that there are no legal grounds to freeze the payment of an administrative measure deemed legitimate. A severe measure but considered necessary to immediately stop unfair business practices, with distorting effects on consumers and the real estate market.

The allegations: phantom licenses and undue profits. The sanction was imposed on December 15, 2025 by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and the 2030 Agenda, led by Pablo Bustinduy. The amount is not random: it was calculated by multiplying the “illicit profit” that Airbnb would have accrued during the examined period by six. The ministerial investigation revealed a wide range of irregularities: thousands of listings without regional licenses, false or non-compliant registration numbers, misleading information about the identity of hosts, often presented as private individuals when they were actually businesses in every respect. Further complicating the digital giant's position were allegations of “obstruction”, “failure to provide data” during checks, and violation of provisional measures during the investigation. Airbnb's defense argues that the obligation to correctly indicate licenses primarily falls on property owners and labels the executive's claims as disproportionate, reiterating that portals should not be equated with publishers responsible for content uploaded by third parties. The clash was in the air: between May and June 2025, the government had already ordered the immediate blocking and removal of nearly 66,000 irregular listings, a drastic intervention endorsed by the Madrid Court itself.

The issue is set against a regulatory framework that has been profoundly renewed between 2024 and 2025. At the EU level, the Regulation 2024/1028, approved in March 2024, introduced stricter transparency standards for the collection and sharing of data on short-term rentals, providing local authorities with suitable tools for proportionate enforcement policies. Meanwhile, Spain has taken the lead with the Royal Decree 1312/2024, effective from January 2025: the reform established the National Unique Registry and the Digital Single Window for Rentals, making it mandatory from July 1, 2025 to display the Unique Registration Number (NRUA) on all platforms. In the absence of the code, listings are subject to immediate removal and heavy penalties. This robust legal framework has provided strength to the requests of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, offering a basis that is difficult to challenge for repressive interventions.