A judgment that is not insignificant. On Friday, the seasonal rental giant Airbnb lost its lawsuit against the small island of Oléron (Charente-Maritime) for failure to collect tourist tax. A “historic victory”, slips the president of the community of communes and mayor of Château-d’Oléron Michel Parent.
To understand this case, a little law. Since 2019, digital operators or rental platforms (Airbnb, Leboncoin, Booking.com, Abritel, etc.) are under a legal obligation to collect tourist tax when making reservations, then pay it to local authorities. On its site, Airbnb plays on transparency: “Airbnb is responsible for donating this tax twice a year to the municipality, on behalf of professional and private guests, writes the American giant. Today and in accordance with the legislation applicable since 2019, Airbnb automatically collects and pays the tourist tax in more than 29,000 municipalities in France”.
“It was unacceptable”
But in Oléron, the situation is different. “We should therefore have received the sums collected in 2020, 2021 and 2022,” explains Michel Parent. ” But nothing “. After several unanswered requests, the situation could not stop there for the eight municipalities that make up the island. “It was unacceptable, we were still talking about 200,000 euros in tax to be collected per year”, annoys the president of the island’s community of municipalities. This is how the legal case between the Goliath of Silicon Valley and the David of Charente-Maritime began.
After going to court for failure to collect tourist tax, Airbnb ceded and paid their due to the municipalities concerned. But the community of communes did not withdraw its complaint. She asked that the platform go to the checkout, to make case law. Thus during the judgment pronounced on Friday, the judges of the judicial court of La Rochelle condemned the multinational to pay a fine of 30,000 euros. “I thank the court for having courageously said the law, despite the imbalance of the forces present,” said Michel Parent, this time via a press release.
A sum, however, much lower than the amounts requested by the plaintiffs’ lawyers, who pleaded a fine of 12 million euros for 2021 (around 2,500 euros in tourist tax for each of the more than 5,000 nights recorded that year). “It was perhaps a bit excessive as a request. But it was an opportunity to show that we are not giving in to Airbnb,” explains Michel Parent. He also dedicates his “victory” to other communities that have not received their taxes. “Airbnb is, by this judgment, forced to respect its commitments in the future with the communities, as it ended up doing with us. »
Other ongoing court cases
For its part, Airbnb dwells precisely on the amount pleaded by the lawyers of the island of Oléron, qualifying it as “disproportionate” and notes that the final fine is “about 400 times lower” than that requested by Oléron . Before the judges, the lawyer for the seasonal rental platform, Thomas Rouhette had described “the approach of Oléron […] reprisals,” according to AFP. During the hearing, the defense pleaded a problem of interpretation of the law in 2020 and a “computer configuration error of the seasonality of the tax” for the year 2021. An incomprehensible defense for Michel Parent.
“We have resolved the issue identified in Oléron last year when we were notified and all under-collected amounts have already been paid to Oléron from Airbnb’s own funds, with late payment interest,” it said. Airbnb in a written press release after the deliberation. At this time, Airbnb has not indicated any intention to appeal.
The case of the island of Oléron against tourist rental platforms is not closed. There is still a judgment concerning the non-payment of taxes collected by Airbnb in 2020 – for which the island’s lawyers are asking for a fine of 17 million euros – while another procedure should be initiated concerning the defaults. taxes for the year 2022. “But it doesn’t stop there, since at the time I speak to you, Booking and Le Bon Coin have still not paid us what they owed us”, raises the mayor of Chateau-d’Oleron. Lawsuits have also been initiated against the Booking platform. To be continued.