{"id":14909,"date":"2019-12-26T11:58:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T17:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=14909"},"modified":"2019-12-26T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T17:58:08","slug":"ruling-the-eu-will-not-treat-airbnb-as-a-real-estate-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/real-estate-tech\/ruling-the-eu-will-not-treat-airbnb-as-a-real-estate-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruling: The EU will not treat Airbnb as a real estate agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it\u2019s official. As far as the European Union (EU) is concerned, Airbnb (an online resource that connects people with short-term housing) is considered an online platform, rather than a real estate agency<\/a>. This might just sound like semantics, but it\u2019s actually part of a bigger on-going debate: how do we regulate online companies?<\/p>\n

Take, for example, Uber\u2019s fate. Uber is a ride-share platform, but unlike Airbnb, the EU ruled that Uber was more than just an online entity. Instead, Uber was defined as a transportation service. This might seem like semantics, but once Uber was labeled, they became beholden to the same regulations as other transportation services, like buses or taxis.<\/p>\n

Similarly, if Airbnb had been labeled as a real estate agency, the company would have to acquire a professional license and the homes listed would have likely had to reach certain regional standards.<\/p>\n

So, why does Airbnb, unlike Uber, get the coveted label of tech platform? Because Airbnb has been able to prove it merely serves as a source of information. Basically, Airbnb tries to stay out of the process as much as possible: for example, AirBnb doesn\u2019t set rental rates<\/a>, instead allowing renters to set the rates themselves. By positioning the company as a middleman, Airbnb is able to avoid falling into the category of real estate.<\/p>\n

In fact, France was found at fault for trying to regulate Airbnb like a real estate agency.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say Airbnb isn\u2019t going to face regulations. There are already rules surrounding e-commerce sites, but as more tech companies become the norm, the European Commission will likely start to crack down on how these companies operate. Safety and liability are large concerns.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the commission will regulate how local governments instate certain regulations on Airbnb\u2019s operations. Although different countries cannot treat Airbnb like a real estate agency, they could still be able to implement different regulations \u2013 given they are fair and reasonable.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s decision on Airbnb is just part of an on-going debate about how to best regulate e-commerce companies. Will there be a \u201cone size fits all solution,\u201d or, like the varying fates of Airbnb and Uber, will we continue to tackle these growing companies on a one-by-one basis? And what does this ruling mean for Airbnb’s future in America?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say, but for now, Airbnb can enjoy its victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(TECHNOLOGY) The EU settles on a label for AirBnb\u2019s operation… but what does it mean? Are they considered real estate, or just an information broker?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337722,"featured_media":14911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[587,1234,299],"class_list":["post-14909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-tech","tag-airbnb","tag-real-estate-news","tag-real-estate-technology-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/airbnb-3399753_1280-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337722"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14926,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14909\/revisions\/14926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}