Members of HomeSharersSF, speaking at a rally at City Hall in San Francisco before the big vote on the Airbnb Law in October 2014. (credit: Kevin Krejci)
It’s not every day that a major tech company sues its hometown. But that’s exactly what’s just happened: on Monday, Airbnb sued the City and County of San Francisco over a new law set to go into effect next month.
The new law expands upon a previous ordinance, which Airbnb itself helped initially draft. The earlier law went into effect in February 2015—it defined and began to regulate short-term rentals. 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.
In its civil complaint, Airbnb argues that it should not be found liable under the new ordinance, as it is exempt under federal statute. Specifically, Airbnb says that it is protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—the famed law that protects "computer service" providers from being found liable for speech made by its users.
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