Airbnb in Disputes With New York and San Francisco
June 30, 2016 12:39 PM Subscribe
SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb has charmed and strong-armed lawmakers around the world to allow it to operate in their communities. But two cities, Airbnb’s hometown, San Francisco, and New York, the service’s largest United States market, have not been so compliant. On Monday, Airbnb sued San Francisco over a unanimous decision on June 7 by the city’s Board of Supervisors to fine the company $1,000 a day for every unregistered host on its service. If Airbnb does not comply, it could face misdemeanor charges. The suit follows a bipartisan move by New York lawmakers who voted this month to heavily fine anyone who uses Airbnb to rent a whole apartment for fewer than 30 days, a practice that has been illegal in the state since 2010.
Airbnb: We shouldn’t have to help San Francisco enforce new rental law
Airbnb: We shouldn’t have to help San Francisco enforce new rental law
It’s not every day that a major tech company sues its hometown. But that’s exactly what just happened: on Monday, Airbnb sued the city and county of San Francisco over a new law set to go into effect next month.Why Airbnb Will Probably Win Legal Fight Against San Francisco
The new law expands upon a previous ordinance that Airbnb itself helped initially draft. The earlier law went into effect in February 2015—it defined and began to regulate short-term rentals, requiring them to have registration numbers. The additional legislation, set to take effect in late July 2016, now requires that listings on sites like Airbnb clearly publish this new registration number and holds both the host and the "platform" (Airbnb) potentially civilly and criminally liable for non-compliance.
Starting next month, Airbnb will face fines of up to $1,000 per day for each unverified listing, and its employees could also face jail time. But it seems unlikely to get that far, according to many attorneys who follow internet law. Websites like Airbnb have immensely broad protections against attempts to hold them liable for the actions of their users. Airbnb’s suit cites section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, widely considered the most revered law among internet companies. It’s the legal protection that keeps Google from being held responsible for the actions of websites its search engine points to and that lets eBay and Amazon run expansive marketplaces where they don’t have complete control over the vendors using their sites.Airbnb sues San Francisco over new law requiring hosts to register
Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, said that San Francisco was regulating the business activity of hosting rather than content posted online, so internet privacy laws weren't applicable.
"Nothing in San Francisco's pending ordinance punishes hosting platforms for their users' content. In fact, it's not regulating user content at all – it's regulating the business activity of the hosting platform itself," he said. "San Francisco requires hosting platforms to facilitate tax collection, and to verify that tourist rental hosts are properly licensed. It's simply a duty to verify information that's already required of a regulated business activity."
Amusing note in the final paragraph from the Bloomberg article: posted by Existential Dread at 12:40 PM on June 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
This seems substantially different from Amazon/eBay/Google. There are limitless numbers of sellers, items to sell, websites to index, etc. San Francisco can (and presumably is willing to) provide a list of literally every registered apartment available for short-term rental.
The protection that Amazon or the like is on the basis that it's logistically impossible for them to ensure things are legal. It is perfectly possible for AirBnB to make assurances, and I'd expect that a host is as licensed as my Uber or taxi driver is licensed, and we do require Uber and taxi companies to at the LEAST have licensed drivers.
posted by explosion at 1:04 PM on June 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
The protection that Amazon or the like is on the basis that it's logistically impossible for them to ensure things are legal. It is perfectly possible for AirBnB to make assurances, and I'd expect that a host is as licensed as my Uber or taxi driver is licensed, and we do require Uber and taxi companies to at the LEAST have licensed drivers.
posted by explosion at 1:04 PM on June 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
Do you know which techniques have Airbnb been using to strong-arm lawmakers?
Our local enforcement just manually check Airbnb/VRBO listings and then just checks them against their records/contacts the owners, I'm sure they too would like to have a way to prevent unregistered homes going up on sites like Airbnb in the first place though, it would certainly push the price up on the other legit rentals that are paying into the community pot.
Is there a reason US law would frown on a warrant that would essentially ask for a report showing rentals under 30 days with addresses?
Or— disrupt the housing disruption by building an app for people to report that they stayed at a short-term Airbnb and getting some cash back based off a percentage of the fine recovered.
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:19 PM on June 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
Our local enforcement just manually check Airbnb/VRBO listings and then just checks them against their records/contacts the owners, I'm sure they too would like to have a way to prevent unregistered homes going up on sites like Airbnb in the first place though, it would certainly push the price up on the other legit rentals that are paying into the community pot.
Is there a reason US law would frown on a warrant that would essentially ask for a report showing rentals under 30 days with addresses?
Or— disrupt the housing disruption by building an app for people to report that they stayed at a short-term Airbnb and getting some cash back based off a percentage of the fine recovered.
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:19 PM on June 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
Websites like Airbnb have immensely broad protections against attempts to hold them liable for the actions of their users.
As a private, opt-in service, they could require their hosts to register with the city and supply Airbnb with that number or they don't get to host via Airbnb.
posted by rtha at 1:20 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
As a private, opt-in service, they could require their hosts to register with the city and supply Airbnb with that number or they don't get to host via Airbnb.
posted by rtha at 1:20 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
When I registered as a host in France, AirBnb showed a page I had to verify that I'd read which said that I was responsible for declaring my place to local authorities, complying with hotel laws, and (as such) paying hotel taxes.
It hasn't been enough for Paris though, and likely not for Nice either – too many people sitting on properties maximizing income through short-term rents when there are an enormous amount of people who need long-term rentals. Paris is looking to make it more difficult for short-term, full-residence rentals as well. (Personally I think that's a good thing.)
posted by fraula at 1:29 PM on June 30, 2016 [10 favorites]
It hasn't been enough for Paris though, and likely not for Nice either – too many people sitting on properties maximizing income through short-term rents when there are an enormous amount of people who need long-term rentals. Paris is looking to make it more difficult for short-term, full-residence rentals as well. (Personally I think that's a good thing.)
posted by fraula at 1:29 PM on June 30, 2016 [10 favorites]
Maybe they can rewrite the law so that airbnb can list whoever shows up but is criminally liable for charging a guest to book a place that hasn't supplied a registration number. As everyone argues, there's no reason to regulate people who are actually sharing things for free.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 2:10 PM on June 30, 2016
posted by the agents of KAOS at 2:10 PM on June 30, 2016
...so, in NY it is illegal to rent an apartment for less than 30 days?
Do not grok....
posted by CrowGoat at 2:57 PM on June 30, 2016
Do not grok....
posted by CrowGoat at 2:57 PM on June 30, 2016
How Airbnb's Data hid the Facts in New York City. (February 2016).
posted by Nelson at 3:00 PM on June 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 3:00 PM on June 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
could require their hosts to register with the city
I'm sure they could, but why on earth would they?
The protection that Amazon or the like is on the basis that it's logistically impossible for them to ensure things are legal
Nah, the law's policy section basically says, "the internet is developing great without government regulation, so let's keep it that way."
posted by jpe at 5:21 PM on June 30, 2016
I'm sure they could, but why on earth would they?
The protection that Amazon or the like is on the basis that it's logistically impossible for them to ensure things are legal
Nah, the law's policy section basically says, "the internet is developing great without government regulation, so let's keep it that way."
posted by jpe at 5:21 PM on June 30, 2016
As a private, opt-in service, they could require their hosts to register with the city and supply Airbnb with that number or they don't get to host via Airbnb.
If they do that, there's a larger chance they'd be held accountable if people were faking it or in some ways non compliant. I get why they don't want to do that.
posted by frumiousb at 5:50 PM on June 30, 2016
If they do that, there's a larger chance they'd be held accountable if people were faking it or in some ways non compliant. I get why they don't want to do that.
posted by frumiousb at 5:50 PM on June 30, 2016
Oh hey talk about coincidence. Just got an email in French from AirBnb (I'll translate the cite):
So yeah, sounds like Airbnb has decided it can give the finger to its hometown, while not daring to risk the biggest tourism market in the world.
and if you don't mind a grammar derail, my [sic] is because in French, there should be a no-break space before the exclamation mark. grrr. Yes, everyone still does it here for question and exclamation marks, as well as for colons and semi-colons, which is grammatically proper.
posted by fraula at 2:11 AM on July 1, 2016
Bonjour [fraula],They were already doing it for Paris.
Nous sommes heureux de vous annoncer qu'à partir du 1er août 2016, Airbnb collectera la taxe de séjour pour le compte des hôtes directement auprès des voyageurs dans les villes listées ci-dessous, et la reversera directement à la commune. Ainsi, vos démarches en seront simplifiées! [sic]
Translation: We are happy to announce that starting August 1st 2016, Airbnb will collect the tourist tax [that's the official translation, it's actually a hotel tax; short-term rentals via leases don't pay it whether it's a tourist renting or not] for hosts, directly from travellers in the cities listed below, and will pay it directly to cities. This makes the process easier for you!
List of cities: Nice [hello!], Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Lille, Toulouse, Cannes, Aix en Provence, La Rochelle, Avignon, Nantes, Biarritz, Saint-Malo, Antibes, Annecy, and Ajaccio.
So yeah, sounds like Airbnb has decided it can give the finger to its hometown, while not daring to risk the biggest tourism market in the world.
and if you don't mind a grammar derail, my [sic] is because in French, there should be a no-break space before the exclamation mark. grrr. Yes, everyone still does it here for question and exclamation marks, as well as for colons and semi-colons, which is grammatically proper.
posted by fraula at 2:11 AM on July 1, 2016
Anaheim recently voted to ban all short-term rentals as well. Turns out people don't like living next to hotels.
posted by Arbac at 10:49 AM on July 1, 2016
posted by Arbac at 10:49 AM on July 1, 2016
...so, in NY it is illegal to rent an apartment for less than 30 days?
Do not grok....
Just a wild guess, but maybe if it's less than 30 days then you're not renting an apartment but staying at a hotel, to which different regulations and taxes apply.
posted by sour cream at 6:34 AM on July 3, 2016
Do not grok....
Just a wild guess, but maybe if it's less than 30 days then you're not renting an apartment but staying at a hotel, to which different regulations and taxes apply.
posted by sour cream at 6:34 AM on July 3, 2016
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