Object of the decision
By a judgment dated January 3, 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed that AIRBNB was a content publisher, on the grounds that it played an active role in drafting the advertisements published on its platform, due to the numerous constraints imposed on its “hosts” regarding the use of its platform.
The Court referred in particular to the specific instructions to be followed before posting an advertisement, the obligation to respect certain standards and certain behavior towards travelers under penalty of sanctions, and the discretionary right reserved by AIRBNB to remove any content that does not comply with its rules.
In classifying the platform as a publisher, the Court also took into account the rewards awarded to certain “hosts” who best comply with the platform’s guidelines, who are awarded the title of “superhost” and thus benefit from greater visibility.
All of these criteria allowed the Court to conclude that AIRBNB acts as a content publisher and that it was therefore its responsibility to ensure the lawfulness of the advertisements published on its site.
In this case, the Court concluded that the AIRBNB platform could therefore be held liable for the economic damage suffered by the owner of the property which had been the subject of an illegal sublet via the platform.
The AIRBNB platform was ordered to pay the owner the sum of 32,399.61 euros, with interest and the legal rate from the date of the judgment, as well as 12,000 euros under Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure, jointly and severally with the tenant.
