SF may revise vacation-rental law to block Airbnb lawsuit
San Francisco may revise its latest attempt to crack down on vacation rentals in private homes, hoping to stave off issues raised in a lawsuit filed by Airbnb that seeks to halt new enforcement measures.
The latest revision, which must now go through the legislative process, directly addresses issues Airbnb raised in its lawsuit, which said the city was violating the First Amendment, the Communications Decency Act and the Stored Communications Act.
The ultimate aim of both sets of amendments is to impose steep fines and criminal penalties to hold services like Airbnb, HomeAway and FlipKey accountable when vacation-rental listings lack the city’s mandated registration number for hosts.
The newest revision says those consequences would kick in only once a hosting service accepts a fee for booking a tourist to stay in an unregistered home.
Airbnb said that was a penalty for publishing content and therefore a violation of the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields Internet companies from liability for user-generated material.
The latest update would remove the prohibition on displaying unregistered listings — but companies would be fined up to $1,000 each time an unregistered property is booked by a guest.
The fact remains that the ordinance as it stands today violates federal law, and these new proposed amendments still wouldn't resolve the legal shortcomings that were raised in our complaint.
The revision would allow the city’s Office of Short-Term Rentals to subpoena records from hosting services when it discovers possible violations of the city’s vacation-rental laws.