Airbnb Fights Harsh Legislation Passed By San Francisco City Government

San Francisco recently passed legislation that will make it extremely difficult for San Francisco residents to list their residences on Airbnb. The legislation requires hosts to register with the city and holds the short-term rental company liable, TechCrunch reported. Airbnb will be fined $1,000 per day and will incur misdemeanor charges if it doesn't comply.

The government argues that this is a positive step in battling the city's housing crisis. CALinnovates, a tech lobbying firm, claims the law infringes on federal legislation that protects websites from being responsible for its users.

CALinnovates has called for Airbnb to sue the city, but the company has taken a lighter approach by mounting a large campaign to ask the city to ease the stringent regulations it has put forth.

The current rules under the new legislation are:

• Acquire business licenses
• Register with he city in person
• File quarterly reports with the city describing how many nights guests stayed in their home
• How may nights the hosts themselves slept in their home
• And file a list of every item in their home that a guest might use (including shampoo and cutlery)

Airbnb is asking to streamline the process:

• Create a one-stop online permit application process
• Create a grace period for new hosts to get registered
• Create flexibility for hosts who rent out their space for fewer than 14 days
• Remove the business registration requirement for hosts who use Airbnb

Compliance is very slim with only 1,300 of Airbnb's estimated 7,000 hosts have started the process to register with the city, TechCrunch noted. San Francisco wants Airbnb to restrict access to only hosts who register with the city; this is where tech advocates says the city is violation federal law.

The legislation is in violation of Section 230 that protects online platforms from being held accountable for the content of their users' post. This is what protects eBay Inc EBAY from being sued for users who sell knockoff handbags on the site and YouTube (Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL) for users that upload copyrighted material.

For now, Airbnb isn't trying to slash the legislation, but instead is working toward overhauling the registration system.