Barcelona, 17 February 2026 - A coalition of organisations led by SUDS, NOVACT and Comité de Solidaridad contra la Causa Árabe — with the support of SOMO and Al-Haq— has filed a criminal complaint before the Investigating Courts in Madrid, Spain, against eDreams ODIGEO, S.A. The complaint requests that the online travel multinational be investigated for allegedly promoting and facilitating tourist bookings in illegal Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the Occupied Syrian Golan, and of profiting from this activity.
Filed in Madrid, on 17th February 2026, the complaint also names Booking.com B.V. (Netherlands) and Travelscape LLC (a subsidiary of Expedia Group Inc) as alleged facilitators. The criminal complaint argues that eDreams presumably relied on partners’ hotel inventory and payment infrastructure -including listings in illegal settlements- while managing the brand and customer relationship.
In this regard, Maite Ramos from SUDS states:
“The complaint alleges that eDreams is not a neutral actor: by brokering and monetising accommodation in settlements, it has allegedly contributed to and benefited from a business chain that sustains international crimes.”
The criminal complaint is grounded in documented research and evidence collected between September 2024 and October 2025 by SOMO and Centro Guernica G37. The coalition found at least 43 accommodation listings on hotels.edreams.com (made up of properties in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan) and has proof of bookings, including payment records and confirmation emails.
The complaint further alleges that, after public statements from eDreams about withdrawing from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, subsequent monitoring found settlement-linked ads and bookable listings appeared on another website accommodation.edreams.es/, operated by Travelscape LLC with eDream’s branding. In September 2025, it displayed at least 35 advertisements in occupied territory, and in October 2025, the organizations managed to complete and pay for 4 reservations.
According to Zainah El-Haroun from Al-Haq:
“The company has acknowledged that some listings appeared in their inventory despite their established protocols, proving the lack of a reliable and robust system to prevent settlement-related listings from being published. Moreover, some listings were removed only after NGOs and local groups intervened, suggesting that takedowns have been reactive rather than systematic”.
This filing follows earlier efforts to trigger an investigation. In July 2025, all the abovementioned organisations filed a criminal complaint at the Madrid Public Prosecutor's Office. In September 2025, the prosecutor declined to open an investigation, arguing that Spain and the EU did not yet have an explicit ban on doing business with illegal settlements.
According to Saúl Castro from Centro Guernica G37:
“The alleged conduct may be punishable under Spanish law. Article 301 of the Spanish Criminal Code criminalises money laundering. Article 611.5 classifies, as a crime against protected persons and property in armed conflict, the direct or indirect transfer or settlement of the occupying power’s population into occupied territory. In addition, Article 614 provides penalties for other serious violations of international humanitarian law. These provisions must be read in light of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its civilian population into occupied territory.”
The complaint also refers to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (19 July 2024), which holds that States must take measures – and cooperate to bring to an end – trade or investment relations that assist in maintaining the illegal situation created by Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. In addition, it also relies on the Royal Decree Law 10/2025 passed by the Spanish Government on September 23, which reinforces the domestic regulatory framework regarding trade and advertising linked to illegal settlements.
The recent report “From an economy of occupation to an economy of genocide”, by UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese, has warned about the role of online travel platforms in supporting settlement economies. Alongside this, civil organizations -including Who Profits, Amnesty International and the coalition Don’t Buy into Occupation (DBIO)-, have documented and denounced eDreams’ practices. Moreover, the company appeared in the first edition (2020) of the UN database of companies involved in certain activities related to Israeli settlements and remained listed in the 2023 update.
The complainants argue that the company’s recent announcement that it has stopped offering settlement accommodation is a step forward, driven by public pressure and civil society advocacy. However, they stress that removing listings does not undo years of profit, repair harm, or guarantee non-repetition. Nor does the cessation of alleged wrongdoing negate the need for a criminal investigation and effective remedy.
Added to this, on January 16, Booking.com wrote to SOMO that its partnership with eDreams had ended in September 2025 and that it “no longer has any kind of commercial or technical relationship with eDreams.”
Alys Samson from NOVACT said:
“If confirmed, this is another victory from civil society, which has been calling for eDreams to end its ties with the Israeli occupation. eDreams must now confirm it has ended ties with Booking.com and end its ties with Expedia, as long as it operates in occupied Palestinian and Syrian land. eDreams must also implement adequate safeguard mechanisms to prevent the re-listing of such listings in high-risk contexts, issue a public apology, disclose the past listings in occupied land and engage with affected Palestinian and Syrian communities on appropriate forms of remedy. In fact, eDreams should leave Israel altogether since it is a settler-colonial, genocidal and apartheid regime.”
The purpose of this criminal complaint is, according to the coalition, to seek accountability in line with international human rights standards, including transparency about the scope of its past activity and robust safeguards mechanisms to prevent the re-listing of properties in high-risk contexts.
This anti-money laundering case is part of a broader initiative to prevent platform companies from doing business in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which includes legal actions against Booking.com in the Netherlands, Airbnb in Ireland, and Booking.com and Airbnb in France.
Blog post: Profiting from tourism in illegal Israeli settlementsThree Spanish civil society groups have accused the multinational travel company, eDreams, of laundering profits derived from activity in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the Occupied Syrian Golan. The groups - NOVACT, SUDS, and Comité de Solidaridad Contra la Causa Árabe – filed the criminal complaint today, 17 February 2026, at the Investigating Courts in Madrid.
In her report, From economy of occupation to economy of genocide, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese, explicitly calls out such commercial activity, stating: “Major online travel platforms, used by millions to reserve accommodation, profit from the occupation by selling tourism that sustains the colonies, excludes Palestinians, promotes settler narratives and legitimises annexation.”
The case filed by the Spanish groups argues that by promoting, facilitating and monetising settlement tourism, online travel platforms have profited from war crimes, while integrating those revenues into their accounts as if they were lawful commercial income. The legal basis for their complaint is Article 301 of the Spanish Criminal Code, which criminalises the integration into the financial system of profits derived from crimes, including war crimes.
eDreams ODIGEO S.A. is one of Europe’s largest online travel companies, headquartered in Spain and listed on the Spanish stock exchange. The group operates well-known travel brands including eDreams, Opodo, GoVoyages, Travellink, and Liligo, serving millions of users worldwide with flight bookings, hotel reservations and holiday packages.
Prior to the 17 February filing, a larger group of organisations had tried to get the Madrid Public Prosecutor to investigate eDreams. However, when the prosecutor decided not to open an investigation, on the spurious grounds that the EU and Spain did not have an explicit ban on doing business in settlements, the formal complaint was filed. Spanish law on proceeds of crime does not require such a ban to be in place.
The complaint is based on evidence collected by SOMO and Centro Guernica G37 between September 2024 and October 2025.
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September 2024 – July 2025: SOMO and Centro Guernica G37 documented more than 43 accommodation listings on hotels.edreams.com, including properties in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Occupied Syrian Golan. Several listings were fully bookable. We completed seven test bookings in Spain between October 2024 and July 2025, with payments processed and confirmation emails sent for each of those bookings.
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September – October 2025: On 3 September, eDreams publicly announced it had disengaged from the OPT and its hotels.edreams.com site subsequently went offline. However, in follow-up research, SOMO and G37 identified another platform, accommodation.edreams.es which has every appearance of being an eDreams site, as it is branded as eDreams and has the company logo. However, it is operated by a different company, Travelscape LLC, a subsidiary of Expedia. In September 2025, 35 listings in settlements remained active, and in October, four reservations were completed for future dates. The complaint argues that eDreams, while not owning this site itself, was paid commissions for bookings made via the site.
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. They are established and maintained through acts that constitute war crimes, including the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory and the unlawful appropriation and exploitation of land and natural resources. In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the listing of tourism accommodation is not an isolated policy, but a central pillar of Israel’s institutionalised regime of racial domination and oppression of the Palestinian people, amounting to apartheid and systematically fragmenting the territory and dispossessing Palestinians.
The illegality of Israel’s prolonged occupation, annexationist policies and settlement enterprise was reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in its July 2024 Advisory Opinion. The court made clear that states must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel”, including the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Spanish criminal law, too, in article 611.5 of the Spanish Criminal Code, treats settlement-related acts, including the exploitation of occupied land, as war crimes. Moreover, article 614 of the Spanish Criminal Code punishes any individual who contributed to a breach of international humanitarian law, including article 49 of the IV Geneva Convention which forbids the creation of settlements in occupied territory by the occupying power.
Against this legal backdrop, the complaint argues that income generated from settlement tourism, including platform commissions, booking fees and referral revenues, must be treated as proceeds of war crimes.
The case centres on the business model of the online travel industry. eDreams does not operate as an independent accommodation provider. According to its financial accounts, since September 2022 its hotel business has relied on hotel inventory from other platforms, such as Booking.com and Expedia. This includes properties located in illegal settlements.
In early September 2025, eDreams publicly announced that it had withdrawn, and would continue to block, accommodation listings in settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. They did so after civil society pressure. Around the same time, hotels.edreams.com went offline. This has highlighted the reactive, rather than proactive, approach of the company.
As noted above, however, subsequent monitoring by researchers found that the eDreams brand was still being used on a site that offered accommodation listings in illegal settlements. The site was operated by a different company, namely Travelscape, but eDreams was allegedly being paid commission. This kind of complex corporate arrangement can allow companies to make profits while distancing themselves from responsibility.
eDreams removed listing in September 2025, after pressure from activists. But removing listings does not repair harm, or guarantee non-repetition. Neither does the cessation of allegedly criminal activity undo the need for a criminal investigation. Without transparency, independent monitoring, and accountability, disengagement risks functioning as a public-relations measure. This is what the complaint filed in Spain today seeks to achieve: accountability, assurances that the harm will not be repeated and to pave the way for remedy for affected Palestinians and Syrians.
Spanish courts are now being asked to investigate whether online travel platforms have profited from activities rooted in war crimes, and whether international law and Spanish criminal law can be effectively enforced to stop such corporate conduct and ensure accountability.
This anti-money laundering case forms part of wider efforts to stop online travel agencies from doing business in Israeli settlements, which include legal actions against Booking.com in The Netherlands (a criminal complaint co-filed by SOMO), Airbnb in Ireland, and Booking.com and Airbnb in France.
Spain has begun signalling a willingness to address this conduct, including through new legal frameworks, by classifying the promotion of settlement goods and services as illegal advertising, and by taking public positions such as its recognition of the State of Palestine. In addition, the Spanish Ministry of Consumers has formally required seven multinational platforms with activity in Spain to remove holiday listings in settlements, deeming such offers unlawful under the new regulatory framework, indicating that non-compliance may lead to further administrative actions.
The critical question now is whether these political and regulatory signals will be followed by robust enforcement: namely, the opening of investigations into the role of tourist platforms in facilitating and profiting from illegal settlement-related activities, including under anti-money laundering and other criminal law frameworks.
SOMO contacted all of the companies named in this article. In an email to SOMO on 14 January, eDreams stated that it takes “the allegations raised [by SOMO] very seriously”. The company also said that their “corporate position remains firm: it is not the intention of eDreams to generate business or revenue from accommodations located in the occupied Palestinian territories or the occupied Syrian Golan.” eDreams claimed the settlement listings found in late 2025 ¨may be linked to a specific external technical integration¨ and they see these as “isolated technical discrepancies”, and the company was carrying out an internal investigation to determine how those listings appeared in their inventory. On 16 January 2026, Booking.com wrote to SOMO that its partnership with eDreams had ended in September 2025 and that it “no longer has any kind of commercial or technical relationship with eDreams”. A criminal complaint concerning Booking.com’s activities in relation to settlement listings is currently pending in the Netherlands. In the past, in its responses to SOMO´s findings, Booking.com has maintained that, in its views, its activities do not violate applicable laws, including international law.