INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW out the inspection task when they detect dwellings that are operating as tourist flats without being so. They also carry out interviews with neighbors, asking them if they know of the existence of illegal tourist accommodation and, if they do, the viewers obtain their address. b) Use of scraping techniques. Practical legal issues The greater availability of data on the internet facilitates the development of new data analysis and processing tools and the application of new technologies to improve the detection of offenses. These are proactive tools that allow for the improvement of ex officio detection. Thus, the most important information channel in this digital ecosystem consists of tracking or automated searches on digital platforms. The inspection activity of the tourism administration can link data obtained on the web with its databases and confirm in a very short time whether it is aware that a private individual is marketing his or her property and therefore can or should be subject to administrative control24. In such a case, the Administration could either issue an administrative order to cease the private activity, which is being carried out without authorization (thus re-establishing the violated legality), or initiate the corresponding sanctioning procedure. B) What liability can platforms be held liable for? It has become commonplace to demand that the registration number of these dwellings in the Autonomous Tourism Register appear in all advertising and marketing actions through virtual intermediation channels, in a clear reference to the different collaborative platforms, implicitly -or not- ordering them to disseminate the offers of dwellings that do not have it. In this regard, it has been common for different regional administrations, in the application of their tourism regulations, to order these platforms to cease offering tourist accommodation that does not have a registration number in the Tourism Register. Also, in the face of such non-compliance, they have proceeded to impose significant penalties. Barcelona City Council, in the belief that platforms should take responsibility for the offers they publish, has carried out an increase in inspections in recent years, resulting in the imposition of the appropriate sanction. All the collaborative 24 Bauza Martorell, 2017, p. 26.
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