Multiple steady-states data were used for the construction of a kinetic model for the oxidation of aqueous ethanol with oxygen on a carbon supported platinum catalyst. A model, incorporating reversible creation of oxygen adatoms on the catalyst surface from surface hydroxyl as well as reversible formation of subsurface oxygen from oxygen adatoms, could describe quantitatively all the observations. It was essential that the reaction rate coefficients for the formation of atomic and subsurface oxygen strongly depend on the corresponding degrees of coverage introducing positive and negative feedback features.