The Court of Appeal has rejected Airbnb Ireland Unlimited Company’s appeal against an order requiring it to give the Revenue Commissioners identifying information about hosts of 365 Austrian rental listings. The information was sought for an Austrian tax investigation and is to be passed on to the Austrian tax authority under an EU information exchange process.
The appeal concerned a High Court order made under section 902A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. The Court of Appeal held that the request was valid, that the Austrian authority had exhausted its usual information sources and that the request was not manifestly without foreseeable relevance to an ongoing investigation. It concluded that providing the information under the order would not breach data protection law.
The Austrian authority’s request covered listings priced above €100 a night. It sought hosts’ names and addresses and dates of birth where available, using Airbnb registration numbers to identify the listings. The authority said it had been investigating possible non-declaration of rental income and could not reliably identify hosts from information available to it. The judgment records that the investigation had led to tax settlements and some voluntary declarations, but does not find that any of the 365 hosts had evaded tax.
Airbnb argued that the Austrian authority had not exhausted its usual sources, pointing to internet searches conducted on the company’s behalf. It also said the request amounted to an impermissible fishing expedition because the hosts were unidentified and there was no individual allegation of non-compliance against them. The court found that the search evidence did not establish that the Austrian authority had failed to use its usual sources. It treated the request as concerning a defined group of hosts and held that the authority had provided enough about its investigation and the reasons for seeking their identities to meet the applicable threshold.
The Court of Appeal also held that the High Court had been entitled to hear the contested application with Airbnb on notice. It considered the legal issues that the High Court had declined to decide and concluded there were reasonable grounds for the application under section 902A. The appeal was rejected, leaving the information order in place. The court did not decide the costs: it directed that the matter be listed for a short hearing on costs at a date to be notified.