43 mln euros per day: Paris sues Airbnb as tensions mount

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Paris is seeking 43 million euros (53 million US dollars) per day from Airbnb over the company’s failure to follow local laws on holiday apartment rentals.

The legal action is the latest sign of tensions between the US company and cities that have seen property prices pushed up by landlords looking to make money from short-term rentals.

Paris’ municipal council has previously requested that any property owner looking to rent out their home needs an official registration number.

In November 2017, the city ruled that individuals cannot rent out their homes for more than 120 days per year, and began enforcing rules on registration numbers which would allow authorities to keep tabs on properties listed online.

With some 43,000 unregistered properties listed on Airbnb, Parisian authorities are seeking 1,000-5,000 euros (1,230-6,160 US dollars) per property for each day that they are left online without registration numbers. A date has been set in June for the court case to be heard.

Airbnb called the decision “disappointing,” adding it sought cooperation with the city on coming up with “simple, clear rules appropriate for everyone.”

Some 65,000 short-term rental properties are listed on Airbnb in Paris, forcing the city’s 80,000-room hotel industry to look over its shoulder in concern.

Paris would not be the first city to sue Airbnb or force it to remove properties for breaking local law. In January, San Francisco forced Airbnb to remove 3,000 properties – almost 50 percent of all the city’s listings – from its website for breaking the law.

San Francisco removed half of Airbnb's properties in the city for failing to comply with local law. /VCG Photo

Earlier this month, Singapore issued two Airbnb hosts with fines of 45,800 US dollars each for illegally renting out properties on the site.

The latest case between Paris and Airbnb also highlights a change in what Airbnb actually is as a company, and the values it stands for.

Not only did the company call the Paris lawsuit disappointing, it further added “the regulation of holiday rentals in Paris is complex, confusing and more suited to professionals than individuals.”

For a company that, according to its website, seeks to “economically empower millions of people around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces,” the line between individual host and professional Airbnb landlord is becoming increasingly blurred.

According to Airbnb’s data analysis arm AirDNA, one landlord in London earned 12 million pounds (17.1 million US dollars) in a single year by renting out 881 properties.

Other data showed that 35 percent of landlords on the company’s website are professional management companies.

Talking to The Telegraph, AirDNA’s chief executive Scott Shatford said “Airbnb is no longer a community just for individuals renting out their space or properties on their own.”

In China, Airbnb has around 150,000 properties listed on its website. The company has earmarked the country as one of its most important markets, with plans to make it the biggest source of rental properties by 2020.

In the last three months of 2017, more than one million guests checked in at Chinese Airbnb properties, triple the amount seen the year before. Since 2015, the company claims its Chinese business has grown more than 100 times in size.

VCG Photo

In order to comply with local rules and regulations, Airbnb has signed memorandums of understanding with Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou to strengthen cooperation.

At the end of last month, the company announced that it would start sharing guest information with Chinese authorities – including passport details – to comply with laws on travelers registering with local police. Hotels in the country already take and share this information with their local exit and entry bureaus.

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