Booking Holdings Romania is a Center of Excellence based in Bucharest, Romania and was created to support the increasing business demands of the Booking Holdings Brands. The Center of Excellence provides access to specialized and highly skilled talent, leading industry best practices, and collaboration opportunities across all of our Brands.
As part of our Booking Holdings Romania team, you will have the opportunity to be a part of the world’s leading provider of online travel, with a mission of making it easier for everyone to experience the world through five-primary consumer facing brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable.
This role provides a hybrid way of working with an onsite presence of 2 days/week.
Role description
The Legal Counsel, Regulatory Support will be responsible for the processing of and response to various types of data and take-down requests, notices of alleged illegal content and other external inquiries in relation to regulatory matters. These requests include requests for information and for the delisting of properties suspected of breaching local laws and regulations applicable to Short Term Rentals (STRs) or other types of properties displayed on Booking.com. Such requests could be submitted by public authorities or third parties, and Booking.com may have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to respond and/or comply. The Legal Counsel, Regulatory Support will be processing these requests in accordance with the STR Data Request Policy, and other internal policies and processes.
The role may also require liaising with external counsel to obtain advice on complex regulatory matters, by applying templates for such purpose, and tailoring them to the case at hand.
The role will focus on contributing to mitigating Booking.com’s platform liability risks related to STR supply and operations, and will be a part of the company’s regulatory advisory function.
Key Job Responsibilities and Duties
- Processing of data and take down requests, and other types of correspondence from public authorities or third parties;
- Processing of various types of claims/complaints regarding Booking.com Home supply (Short term rentals);
- Handling of small judicial and administrative proceedings against Booking.com entities, or involving Booking.com;
- Liaising with external counsel to obtain advice on complex regulatory matters;
- Liaising with internal stakeholders to conduct investigations and collect relevant data and evidence on specific cases;
- Drafting letters and responses on behalf of Booking.com;
- Tracking efficiently all cases received and processed by the STR Legal team;
- Delivering legal recommendations to business stakeholders as to the actions to be taken to ensure compliance with legal requirements;
- Assisting in the revision of internal processes and templates for the processing of various types of requests and cases of suspected illegal activities;
- Communicating effectively with various stakeholders including the Legal & Public Affairs team of Booking.com and across other offices.
Role Qualifications and Requirements
- Basic job knowledge : 1-3 years of work experience in a legal position.
- Law degree is required
- Knowledge of English is essential; knowledge of 1 more EU language is preferred (German, French, Spanish, Italian)
- Knowledge of EU Law, privacy & data protection law, platform liability is preferred.
- Experience in internal investigations, law enforcement or compliance function, litigation, or procedural law
- Experience working in an in-house legal support function
- Experience working in an international context and exposure to various legal systems.
- Experience working in the accommodations/tourism sector or knowledge of regulations in this sector
- Skills in data collection, analytics and statistics are preferred.
- Initiative, analytical (and risk avoidance/risk mitigation) mindset, problem-solving
- Learning skills, strong sense of ownership and /accountability, strong organizational skills
- Resilient and customer-centric
- Strong work ethic, enthusiastic and adaptable
- Ability to work independently and a good team player
- Strong communication skills (written + use of zoom and other communication platforms).
- Ability to work remotely and communicate efficiently with team members in various locations across the world.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, changing work environment, and to handle numerous tasks simultaneously.
- Ability to report on tasks/projects conducted, to ensure visibility of workload & output.
- High work ethic in terms of organization and record keeping, methodological and policy-driven, meticulousness and attention to detail.
- Comfortable with picking up new tools and tech seamlessly
Benefits & Perks
- Contributing to a high scale, complex, world renowned product and seeing real-time impact of your work on millions of travelers worldwide
- Working in a fast-paced and performance driven culture
- Technical, behavioral and interpersonal competence advancement via on-the-job opportunities, experimental projects, hackathons, conferences and active community participation
- Competitive compensation and benefits package
- Vast amounts of data to validate your ideas and the opportunity to experiment with real users
Booking Holdings is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We strive to move well beyond traditional equal opportunity and work to create an environment that allows everyone to thrive.
Pre-Employment Screening
If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the position.
