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Spain hits Airbnb with a major multi-million dollar fine for what it says are illegal listings.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
In India, pollution is grinding the economy to a halt.
And in Paris, workers at the Louvre are on strike.
Yes, Spain has fined Airbnb 75 million for advertising unlicensed holiday rentals.
Saying short-term lets are worsening the housing crisis.
Guy Hedgecone is following the story in Madrid.
The Consumer Rights Ministry says that Airbnb was allowing unlicensed tourism properties to be advertised on the site.
And the fine that's been imposed is 64 million euro fine, you know, 75 million dollars.
The government says that that is worth six times the profits that Airbnb would have made from the illegal listings that it's clamping down on here.
They're really pushing back on short-term lettings.
That's right.
And the Spanish government and many other people in Spain believe that tourism apartments like the ones that are put on offer by Airbnb are part of a broader problem, which is Spain's housing crisis.
Like many other countries in Europe, Spain has a rental problem, in the sense that rentals have been spiraling in recent years and many people are simply not able to afford to live, particularly in bigger towns and cities.
Ventura Dural owns a family-run rental property business in Barcelona.
He's also vice president of the Holiday Apartments Owners Association, APARTUR.
He says the fine doesn't make a difference to his members.
As an association, we are absolutely against any illegal apartment in Barcelona or whatever, right?
So your company and the people in your group?
This doesn't really affect them.
However, do you think that, with the government imposing so many laws that are anti-tourism, does that make your job harder sometimes?
Absolutely.
But this is for me and also for individuals that own apartments.
In fact, in our association, more than 80% of our associates own between one and three apartments.
When you read the news all the time and every day, you see the news about the ban for 2028, the new registration platforms and everything that you have to do.
It's hard for everybody in the sector.
We are here today.
We don't know where we will be in 2028.
Do you understand the point that people have saying that they can't afford housing in those cities anymore?
This is a real problem.
I am not denying that.
There are about 850,000 apartments, okay?
Only 1% are touristic apartments.
From 2014, they have not issued a single new license for short-term rentals in Barcelona.
And since then, the price of the housing has increased by 65% or 64%, something like that.
So how can you say that the fixed 1 number of apartments can make the rental price increase so much in 10 years?
That was Ventura Dural from Apartur.
Andres Barragan is Secretary General for Consumer Affairs in the Spanish government.
What we're requesting Airbnb, is that every short-term rental needs to have a registration number.
And this is something that was introduced in the Spanish law some years ago, but also the European Union has introduced a very similar regulation that will come into force next April.
So, This registration number will be required in all EU countries next year.
We understand this is something that also other countries will follow.
And this is a way to control the legal apartments and the short-term rentals in any website.
Is the problem really Airbnb as a platform or is it the property owners breaking local rules?
So why target the company rather than the landlords themselves?
There are several actors that we identify in this issue.
It's about the platforms.
It's about the companies that manage many short-term rentals.
And it's also about the owners.
We have sanctions for every particular case.
And, in terms of the platform, it is the ministry that is responsible to control these activities and to sanction big platforms.
What evidence do you have that shows that short-term rentals are a main driver of housing shortages, rather than things like planning rules, second homes, maybe a lack of construction, a lack of social housing?
There are several studies in Spain in the last years that point directly that the short-term rentals for tourism is raising rents in big cities.
Bank of Spain suggested that it was a main driver of the housing crisis, because it affects both the price of the houses and also the amount of houses that are available for living.
So this is clear something that we need to address.
Andres Barragan there from the Spanish government.
Meanwhile, Airbnb said it was closely collaborating with Spain's Ministry of Housing to support the enforcement of the new national registration system.
Let's go to India now, where the pollution levels have caused a serious case of smog and it's brought its capital city to a halt.
I spoke to the BBC's Aruna Day Mukherjee from the streets of Delhi.
Whenever these things happen and this has become an annual affair, unfortunately where the pollution really becomes bad and as it has entered the severe category you have the government taking some measures, like banning construction work, insisting that people work from home and also that a lot of vehicles, especially the old vehicles which are still running on diesel, not allowed into the vicinity of the city of Delhi.
And those are some of the measures they feel will help in reducing pollution, because they feel a lot of it is caused by vehicular emissions and also construction activity.
Now, obviously immediately the impact you've got a lot of people, a big chunk of workforce which essentially is not working for long periods of time.
When those measures are brought in, does that actually alleviate the problem?
I've seen this deteriorate year after year.
And a lot of environmentalists and experts have been asking questions that if authorities know this is a chronic problem, that it's becoming worse every year, then why aren't they putting in measures which preempt the problem?
Essentially, so far, what we see are actions which are taken when pollution levels rise.
So it's more reactive and not prescriptive.
And I think that's where the problem really lies.
With me now, Rachel Winter, Partner and Investment Manager at Killik & Co.
Rachel, this used to be such a popular Christmas gift, but now the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner it's gone into bankruptcy.
What happened?
Yeah, well, this is a good example of US tariffs not being good for US companies.
So iRobot, which is the company that makes the Roomba.
They make a lot of their product in Vietnam and those products are now subject to import duties of 46 when they go back into the US.
So that's hit the company really hard.
And that's one reason why it's gone into bankruptcy.
I imagine so.
Did you ever get one, Rachel?
No, I didn't.
Me neither.
We won't.
We won't.
That's it.
Also, gold nearing record highs, I see.
Yeah, gold has had an incredible rally this year.
It's up 60% since January.
There are some reasons for this.
One is that gold is seen as a safe haven.
It's also seen as a hedge against inflation.
And also because gold trades in dollars, it becomes more attractive when the dollar is weaker.
And we have seen quite a significant weakening in the dollar over the course of this year.
OK, Rachel Winter, thank you so much.
Now, the world's most visited museum didn't open a schedule today.
Instead, workers at the Louvre Museum in Paris are on a rolling strike, demanding extra staff and measures to tackle overcrowding and security issues.
Two months ago, thieves broke into the Louvre and stole nine items of priceless jewellery.
Elsie Muller, National Secretary of the Sud Culture Trade Union.
We know that 400 people voted, and I repeat, unanimously for strike action today.
We're used to the management choosing whether or not to open the museum partially, but given the number of strikers who declared themselves this morning, we believe that if the Louvre chose to open, it would mean that safety and security conditions for the public, the palace and the collections are not in place.
That would be their responsibility.
We are stopping work today and we hope to be able to resume as quickly as possible.
But that will require firm commitments and commitments that must come from the culture ministry.
Because up to now, the Louvre's management has never responded to these demands.
That was Elsie Muller from the Soud Culture Trade Union.
And that's it from World Business Express with me, Leanna Byrne.
Thanks so much for listening.
Want to know how to become the richest person in the world?
Start with the latest episode of our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire.
We're telling the story of how Elon Musk amassed half a trillion dollars from his troubled childhood in South Africa to buying Twitter and launching rockets into space, with all the boardroom dramas along the way.
Find out how he did it on Good Bad Billionaire.
Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
