# Airbnb deemed an 'information society service' and not a real estate agent (ECJ, Dec 2019) * "By its judgment of 19 December 2019, Airbnb Ireland (C-390/18), the Grand Chamber of the \[European] Court \[of Justice] held, first, that an intermediation service which, by means of an electronic platform, is intended to connect, for remuneration, potential guests with professional or non-professional hosts offering short-term accommodation services, while also providing a certain number of services ancillary to that intermediation service, **must be classified as an ‘information society service’ under Directive 2000/31 on electronic commerce**. (...) * The dispute in the main proceedings concerns criminal proceedings brought in France following a complaint, together with an application to be joined as a civil party to the proceedings, lodged against **Airbnb Ireland** by the **Association pour un hébergement et un tourisme professionnels (Association for professional tourism and accommodation, AHTOP**). * Airbnb Ireland is an Irish company that manages an electronic platform which, in return for payment of a commission, makes it possible to establish contact, particularly in France, between professional hosts and private individuals offering short-term accommodation services and people looking for such accommodation. * In addition, Airbnb Ireland offers those hosts ancillary services, such as a format for setting out the content of their offer, civil liability insurance, a tool for estimating their rental price or payment services for the provision of those services. * **AHTOP (...) maintained that (the) company did not merely connect two parties through its platform of the same name; it also acted as an estate agent without holding a professional licence, in breach of the act known as the ‘Hoguet Law’ which applies to the activities of real estate professionals in France.** * **For its part, Airbnb claimed that, on any view, Directive 2000/31 precluded that legislation**." * Source: ECJ press release: [France cannot require Airbnb to hold an estate agent’s professional licence as it did not notify the Commission of that requirement in accordance with the Directive on electronic commerce (PDF)](https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2019-12/cp190162en.pdf) * Judgement: * See also: * Amsterdam municipality: [Cities alarmed about European protection of holiday rental](https://www.amsterdam.nl/bestuur-organisatie/college/wethouder/laurens-ivens/persberichten/press-release-cities-alarmed-about/) * And the information at the very useful jurisprudence database maintained by Housing Rights Watch: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://housing-base.journalismarena.eu/short-term-rentals/court-cases-and-other-jurisprudence/airbnb-deemed-an-information-society-service-and-not-a-real-estate-agent-ecj-dec-2019.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.