Spain fined Airbnb €64 million for listing unlicensed properties in December 2025

On December 15, 2025, Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs reported it had fined short-term rental platform Airbnb 64,055,311 euros for advertising unlicensed tourist accommodations and committing other regulatory infractions. The sanction was classified as grave and became final following the resolution of an administrative appeal by the Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy.

The administrative action targeted violations identified across 65,122 advertisements published on the platform. In addition to the financial penalty, the ministry imposed accessory sanctions requiring Airbnb to correct the identified violations, remove the illegal listings, and make the details of the fine public. The enforcement came amid a broader regulatory push by the Spanish government to address housing availability and affordability across the country.

What the data shows

The total penalty of 64,055,311 euros, which was also reported as 64 million euros or approximately 75 million dollars, was issued for a grave infraction under Article 47.1 M of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users, known as the TRLGDCU, with additional separate fines levied for other violations. The primary fine of 64,055,311 euros was issued for a grave infraction under Article 47.1 M of the law, which covers unfair commercial practices against consumers and users.

Under this specific infraction, the ministry cited two main violations. First, Airbnb published advertisements for tourist accommodations that lacked the required license numbers, directly violating regional regulations in Spain that mandate the inclusion of a registry number in all public advertising. Second, the platform published advertisements containing license numbers that did not match official registry records, or failed to provide accurate information regarding the legal status of the hosts, which the ministry classified as misleading advertising.

The ministry calculated the 64,055,311 euros penalty by multiplying the illegal profits Airbnb generated from these listings by six. This calculation covered the period from when the ministry issued its formal warning to the platform until the listings were eventually removed. Prior to this final resolution, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid had supported the ministry’s removal orders in several separate rulings.

Beyond the primary penalty, the ministry imposed three additional fines for separate infractions:

• A fine of 10,000 euros for a light infraction under Article 47.1 T, which involved failing to comply with obligations for distance contracts by omitting information about the legal nature of the hosts advertising on the platform.
• A fine of 10,000 euros for a light infraction under Article 47.1 I, due to Airbnb’s obstruction or refusal to supply requested data and information to inspectors during the investigation.
• A fine of 55,000 euros for a grave infraction under Article 47.1 O, because the platform failed to comply with provisional measures and orders issued by the investigating body to prevent ongoing risks or injuries to consumers during the proceedings.

The scale of the enforcement reflected a wider pattern of regulatory actions in Spain. In May, the consumer rights ministry had ordered Airbnb to remove approximately 65,000 listings due to rule violations. Additionally, in June, the ministry ordered another major online accommodation platform, Booking.com, to remove more than 4,000 illegal advertisements. These actions followed a separate 2024 ruling by Spain’s anti-trust watchdog, which fined Booking.com 413 million euros, or 448 million dollars, for abusing its dominant market position over the preceding five years.

How it was measured

The figures and violations were determined through an administrative investigation conducted by Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030. The ministry’s inspectors audited listings on Airbnb’s platform to verify whether they complied with regional laws requiring the display of valid registration numbers. The audit identified 65,122 specific advertisements that failed to meet these standards.

To establish the financial penalty, the ministry measured the illegal profits Airbnb earned directly from the non-compliant listings. The measurement period began when the ministry formally warned Airbnb about the offending advertisements and ended when the listings were taken down. The ministry then multiplied this calculated profit by six to arrive at the final grave penalty of 64,055,311 euros. The source did not publish the exact mathematical formulas, the specific dates of the warning period, or the precise amount of the base profit used in this calculation.

What moved the numbers

The enforcement action was driven by a combination of high tourist volumes and growing domestic concern over housing availability. Spain, which was the second most-visited country in the world, hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024 and was on track to exceed that figure in 2025. This sustained tourism growth increased the demand for short-term holiday rentals, which local residents and government officials linked to rising housing costs and a shortage of long-term rental properties.

In popular tourist destinations, residents expressed significant opposition to the expansion of short-term rentals. For example, in June 2025, protesters in Barcelona held demonstrations against mass tourism, with some carrying signs calling for a boycott of Airbnb. In response to these pressures, local authorities in Barcelona announced plans to phase out all of the 10,000 licensed short-term rental apartments in the city by 2028 to preserve the housing supply for residents.

At the national level, the leftist minority coalition government prioritized housing affordability. Minister Pablo Bustinduy framed the fine as part of a broader effort to address the housing crisis, stating that thousands of families were living on the edge due to housing costs while a small number of businesses profited from models that displaced people from their homes. He emphasized that no company in Spain, regardless of its size or power, could operate above the law.

Who it affected

The ruling directly affected Airbnb as a corporate entity, imposing a substantial financial penalty and requiring the platform to alter its listing practices. A spokesperson for Airbnb stated that the company intended to challenge the fine in court, expressing confidence that the ministry’s actions ran counter to applicable Spanish regulations.

The enforcement also affected the broader short-term rental market, including property hosts and managers. To maintain their listings on the platform, hosts faced stricter verification requirements. Airbnb reported that it was collaborating with the Spanish housing ministry to implement a new national registration system. The company noted that since January, more than 70,000 listings had successfully added a registration number to their profiles and remained active for bookings.

Other real estate sectors were also affected by the government’s regulatory focus. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs indicated that it was pursuing separate sanctioning files against traditional real estate agencies for allegedly engaging in abusive practices against tenants during the rental management process.

What the figures did not tell you

While the ministry’s report provided detailed figures on the total fine and the number of offending listings, it left several key questions unanswered. The data did not specify how many individual hosts or property management companies owned or managed the 65,122 non-compliant listings, making it difficult to determine whether the violations were concentrated among a few large-scale operators or spread across many individual hosts.

The report also did not provide a geographical breakdown of where the 65,122 listings were located. It did not show how many of the violations occurred in major urban centers like Madrid or Barcelona compared to rural areas, where Airbnb had previously requested that Spain adopt different rules for tourist rentals.

Furthermore, the source did not disclose the exact amount of the baseline illegal profit that Airbnb was accused of generating, nor did it clarify the specific duration of the warning period. Without these details, independent analysts could not evaluate the profitability of the non-compliant listings relative to the platform’s total revenue in Spain. Finally, the figures did not indicate how many of the 70,000 listings that added registration numbers since January were previously unlicensed properties that complied with the new rules, or whether they represented entirely new inventory entering the market.

“There are thousands of families who are living on the edge due to housing, while a few get rich with business models that expel people from their homes,” said consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy.

What to take from it

This regulatory action highlights several critical considerations for short-term rental operators and investors:

• Ensure all listings display verified registration numbers that match official municipal or regional registries, as mismatched data is now a primary target for automated compliance audits.
• Provide complete and accurate disclosures regarding the legal nature of the host, as omitting whether an operator is a professional manager or an individual can result in separate consumer protection penalties.
• Prepare for the implementation of national registration systems, which platforms are increasingly adopting in cooperation with housing ministries to automate compliance checks.
• Monitor local regulatory trends in high-demand tourist destinations, as cities like Barcelona are moving toward complete bans on short-term rentals rather than simple registration requirements.