What happened with the Airbnb €64 million fine in Spain?: The High Court of Justice of Madrid refused on 23 March 2026 to suspend the €64m fine. The fine stands while Airbnb's full appeal against the Ministry of Consumer Affairs proceeds.Source: El País/Reuters
What is the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid?: It is the highest court within the Madrid Autonomous Community, handling administrative, civil, criminal and social appeals. It sits below Spain's Supreme Court.
What is the High Court of Justice of Madrid's ruling on the Airbnb fine?: The TSJM refused on 23 March 2026 to suspend the €64m fine imposed by Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, allowing enforcement to continue while Airbnb's substantive appeal proceeds. Airbnb has since filed a reconsideration motion with no hearing date set.Source: Lowdown / BOE
Will Airbnb win its appeal against the Spanish STR fine?: The outcome is uncertain. The TSJM's 23 March refusal to suspend enforcement was a significant setback for Airbnb. The reconsideration motion filed in April 2026 has no hearing date. The substantive appeal on the merits remains outstanding.Source: Lowdown
How does Spain's Airbnb court case affect EU short-term rental enforcement?: The TSJM ruling is the first EU national court to refuse suspension of an STR enforcement action, establishing a precedent that consumer-affairs powers can reach platform behaviour ahead of the 20 May 2026 EU Regulation 2024/1028 deadline.Source: Lowdown
What did the Madrid court decide about Airbnb's €64 million fine?: The High Court of Justice of Madrid refused on 23 March 2026 to suspend the €64 million fine while Airbnb's substantive appeal continues. Airbnb filed a reconsideration motion in late April 2026; no hearing date has been set as of 20 May 2026.Source: Lowdown
Why does the Madrid Airbnb court case matter for the rest of the EU?: The TSJM's refusal to suspend the fine is the first national STR enforcement action to survive a suspension challenge in the EU. Its next procedural ruling will set the template for how platforms contest STR fines across all 27 member states under Regulation 2024/1028.Source: Lowdown

Background

The High Court of Justice of Madrid (Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid, TSJM) refused on 23 March 2026 to suspend the €64 million fine imposed on Airbnb by Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the first national STR enforcement action to survive a suspension challenge anywhere in the EU. Airbnb subsequently filed a reconsideration motion; as of 28 April 2026 no substantive hearing date has been set, leaving the largest EU short-term rental enforcement action in procedural limbo as the 20 May 2026 EU Regulation 2024/1028 deadline approaches. The court's rulings on both the suspension refusal and the reconsideration motion will set the procedural template for how STR fines are contested across the EU once the regulation takes effect.

The High Court of Justice of Madrid is the highest court within the Madrid Autonomous Community, sitting above the ordinary civil and administrative courts but below the Supreme Court. It handles appeals in administrative, civil, criminal and social matters. In this case, Airbnb sought an interim suspension of the fine pending its full appeal against the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' December 2025 sanction. The court's refusal means the fine stands while the substantive appeal proceeds; it does not constitute a final ruling on the merits.

The ruling resets the reference price of STR non-compliance across the EU. Spain's Plan Estatal de Vivienda 2026-2030 (Real Decreto 326/2026), approved the same week Airbnb filed its reconsideration motion, explicitly frames STR enforcement alongside €7 billion in supply-side investment as a two-pronged housing response. The TSJM's handling of the Airbnb case now sits at the intersection of consumer-affairs enforcement, EU platform regulation, and Spain's broader housing politics.

As of 20 May 2026 — EU Regulation 2024/1028's application date — the High Court of Justice of Madrid has still set no hearing date on Airbnb's reconsideration motion against the €64 million fine. The court's silence on the largest STR enforcement action in EU history sits directly on top of today's SDEP go-live: both the court's next procedural move and the Commission's enforcement posture will set the template for how platform pushback against national STR fines is handled across the bloc. Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy is meanwhile targeting RDL 8/2026 for summer resubmission, with Junts signalling conditional openness — meaning Spain's housing-policy stack is being actively renegotiated on the same day the regulation goes live.