The seasonal rental platform between individuals sees its contractual liability engaged in the publication of false announcements.
by MO12345lemonde with AFP
Is the Abritel seasonal rental platform only a “content host” not responsible for what he publishes, as she proclaims? To this question, the Paris judicial court on February 21 (2023), answered in the negative. He condemned Homeaway UK, operator of Abritel, until December 31, 2020, to compensate sixty individuals victims of scams, by paying them 107,078.79 euros (and to reimburse their lawyers).
These individuals had been deceived by crooks who filed fictitious announcements on the platform and then pocketed the money from the rental. When they asked the Abritel to compensate them, they were refused. The platform argued that it is only a “content host”, and that it cannot be held responsible for what is published there. She also argued that the victims had shown “imprudence”, by exchanging by email with the false owners, and by performing payments outside the secure internal messaging.
On December 23, 2020, these users, grouped within a collective represented by M e Jonathan Bellaiche, assigned Homeaway UK. They challenged that she could present herself as a simple host. The court followed them: he judges that the company Homeaway UK “cannot claim having exercised, in the exploitation of the Platform Abritel.fr, the role of a purely passive host, the consequence of which would have been a civil liability limited “. He therefore considers that “common law contractual responsibility” must apply.
He recognizes, however, that users who exchanged outside the secure messaging has shown recklessness: he only reimburses them 40 %, unlike those who have reserved on the site, and who are 100 %compensated. “This decision, which recognizes the civil liability of the Abritel platform, is a reassuring legal victory for victims of scam,” said M e Bellaiche, who still has three other actions in progress against Abritel. The American company sent, which has resumed Abritel, said “study” the possibility of calling.