Amsterdam calls for EU support against Airbnb

Amsterdam and nine other European tourist cities want more support from the European Union in their fight against tourist rental through online platforms like Airbnb. They issued a joint statement in response to a ruling by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice stating that Airbnb is an informal service provider and therefore needs to take little to no responsibility for complying with holiday rental rules, NOS reports.

"We fear that the large-scale tourist rental of houses will further increase if the platforms take no responsibility for compliance with the rules", the cities said. "Even more vacation rental is harmful to the vulnerable housing market and will affect the quality of life even more." The statement is signed by Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Krakow, Munich, Paris, Valencia and Vienna.

"Current European legislation threatens to deprive cities of the tools they need to take action against globally operating rental platforms", the cities said. "If residents no longer feel protected, this undermines confidence in European politics. It is high time that new rules are introduced that protect the housing market and guarantee the quality of life in cities."

Until the start of this year, Amsterdam had an agreement with Airbnb that the platform would remove listings that have been rented out more than 60 days per year - then the maximum days an Amsterdam home is allowed to be rented out to tourists. That agreement lapsed on January 1st. Amsterdam now only allows tourist rentals for a maximum of 30 days per year, but Airbnb no longer helps to enforce this rule. Amsterdam residents also have to report to the municipality when they rent their homes to tourists, but this too is not enforced by Airbnb.