Two years ago a group of NGOs filed a criminal complaint against Booking.com regarding a supposed money-laundering offence by Booking.com, because they obtain revenues from renting out properties in illegal Israeli settlements, established through the commission of war crimes. Recently SOMO published the article Court must decide on prosecution of Booking.com over money-laundering on the current stage of the procedure. Read also SOMO’s earlier article.

The criminal offence of money laundering is defined very broadly, so it is quite possible that proceeds from illegal Israeli settlements fall within its scope. It will therefore be interesting to see the outcome of the proceedings.

The outcome could have wider implications, given that many other companies are profiting from illegal activities. Examples include Meta and Google, which illegally harvest personal data from all Europeans and make a great deal of money from it. Those proceeds could also be regarded as criminal proceeds, meaning the companies are guilty of money laundering.

To be continued!