Language: English
Date of the decision: 22 September 2020
Country: France
Jurisdiction: Court of Justice of the European Union
Preliminary Ruling
Articles 9 to 13 of Directive 2006/123/EC of 12 December 2006, on services in the internal market
Subject: Housing affordability and short-stay accommodation
Cali Apartments SCI (C‑724/18) HX (C‑727/18) v Procureur général près la cour d’appel de Paris, Ville de Paris
Request for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Cassation, France.
This case is all the more relevant as it finally justifies the efforts of the cities to establish limits to short-stay accommodation platforms. In a case in December 2019, the Court had ruled that France could not require Airbnb to hold an estate agent’s professional licence as it had not notified the Commission of that requirement in accordance with the Directive on electronic commerce[1].
This case concerns a real estate company that had rented studios in Paris on a short-term basis to a visiting clientele via an internet platform. This company carried out this activity on several occasions even though it had never received prior authorisation from the local authorities.
Following this, the tribunal de grande instance de Paris (Regional Court, Paris, France), hearing an application for interim relief, then, subsequently, the cour d’appel de Paris (Court of Appeal, Paris, France) ordered the two owners to pay a fine and ordered that the use of the properties in question be changed back to residential.
Both owners appealed to the Court of Cassation, which in turn made a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union “in order to be able to ascertain the compatibility of the national legislation in question with Directive 2006/123 on services in the internal market”.
The Court, by its judgement on 22 September 2020, noted, among other things, “that the legislation in question is intended to establish a mechanism for combating the long-term rental housing shortage, the objective of which is to deal with the worsening conditions for access to housing and the exacerbation of tensions on the property markets, which constitutes an overriding reason relating to the public interest” and that “the national legislation concerned is proportionate to the objective pursued”
Finally, the Court stated that the national legislation making the repeated short-term letting of accommodation to a transient clientele which does not take up residence there subject to authorisation is consistent with EU law and that combating the long-term rental housing shortage constitutes an overriding reason relating to the public interest justifying such legislation.
To read the full case, click here.
Further reading: (French)
Nicolas BERNARD, professeur à l’Université Saint-Louis — Bruxelles et Laurent DEBROUX, assistant - chargé d’enseignement à l’Université Saint-Louis — Bruxelles et avocat
[1] Airbnb Ireland (Case 390/18) : http://www.housingrightswatch.org/jurisprudence/case-c-39018-airbnb-irel...
