Following a complaint against X, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an introductory indictment for violations of French law regulating the practice of real estate professionals (“Hoguet” law).
The French investigating judge referred questions to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling as to whether the services provided in France by Airbnb Ireland, via an electronic platform operated from Ireland, benefit from the freedom to provide services provided for by the Directive on electronic commerce and whether the Hoguet Act is enforceable against Airbnb.
The Advocate General proposes that the ECJ consider that a service consisting in putting potential tenants in contact with landlords offering short-term accommodation services by means of an electronic platform, in a situation where the provider of that service does not exercise control over the essential terms of those services, constitutes an information society service.
For the rest, the Advocate General proposes that the ECJ should conclude that a Member State other than the one in whose territory a provider of information society services is established cannot (…) restrict the free movement of such services by invoking (…) ex officio and without a review of the substantive conditions being necessary, requirements such as those relating to the exercise of the profession of estate agent, laid down by the Hoguet Act.
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