Bill Forcing Airbnb To Hand Over Hosts' Info Passes City Council

NEW YORK CITY HALL — The City Council approved legislation Wednesday to force Airbnb to disclose data about its hosts — hours after one host claimed the city came after him for opposing the measure.

The Council unanimously passed a bill that would require Airbnb and other home-sharing services to turn over hosts' names, addresses, listing URLs and other information to the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, which goes after illegal short-term rentals.

For each listing they don't disclose or report improperly, the platforms would face a fine of $1,500 or the amount of fees collected on the listing in the preceding year, whichever is greater, the bill says. A previous version called for much steeper fines of up to $25,000 per listing.

The trove of data will help the city root out unscrupulous landlords who exacerbate the city's housing affordability crisis by turning apartments into illegal hotels, lawmakers argued. The bill was sponsored by more than 40 of the 51 Council members.

"This bill is about transparency and bringing accountability to billion-dollar companies who are not being good neighbors," said Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), the bill's lead sponsor.

But Stanley "Skip" Karol, a Brooklyn Aibnb host, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court accusing the city of slapping him with hefty fines "simply and solely to punish him for speaking out" against the bill.

"This is a case about unlawful retaliation against citizen speech, and the arbitrary application of government power," the lawsuit says.

State law bans New York City residents in three-family buildings or larger from renting their homes for less than 30 days if they're not present. The Office of Special Enforcement has gone after several landlords who have rented entire apartments in violation of that law, such as one accused last month of running illegal hotels in Hell's Kitchen.

Activist groups and the hotel industry-backed Share Better Coalition have pushed for the Council legislation, casting Airbnb as a threat to affordble housing. A hotly contested report from City Comptroller Scott Stringer blamed the service for about 9 percent of the city's total rent increase from 2009 to 2016.

But the reportedly $38 billion company has aggressively fought the bill, lambasting its Council supporters as pawns of the deep-pocketed hotel industry, which has reportedly worked to kneecap Airbnb nationwide.

"The fix was in from the start and now New Yorkers will be subject to unchecked, aggressive harassment and privacy violations, rubber stamped by the City Council," Airbnb spokeswoman Liz DeBold Fusco said in a statement Wednesday.

Airbnb has argued the disclosure requirement will make middle-class New Yorkers who rely on home-sharing income vulnerable to hefty fines and intimidation from the city. In written testimonies, dozens of Airbnb hosts said they opposed the legislation and praised the platform, which some said helps them cover housing, medical and other costs.

The city's alleged scare tactics are at the center of Karol's lawsuit.

Karol, 58, earns money renting rooms on Airbnb in his two-family Sunset Park home to supplement his disability payments, according to his complaint against the city.

Karol testified against the disclosure bill at a June 26 Council hearing, according to the suit. A week later, the complaint says, the Office of Special Enforcment slapped him with four "baseless" summonses that demanded up to $32,000 in fines he can't afford to fight or pay.

"If nothing is done, Mr. Karol faces the prospect of losing his home for having criticized government policy," the complaint says.

The city's Law Department is reviewing the complaint and "will respond accordingly in the litigation," department spokesman Nick Paolucci said.

A spokeswoman for the Office of Special Enforcement confirmed Karol was issued four summonses on July 5. A June 28 311 complaint prompted the office's inspection, the spokeswoman said.

Council members defended the legislation, saying it was a step they were forced to take because Airbnb wouldn't voluntarily share its data. New Yorkers have frequently complained about the impacts of short-term rentals in their neighborhoods, lawmakers said.

"Clearly they are lashing out because they lost a policy argument on this very issue," Council Speaker Corey Johnson said of Airbnb.

(Lead image: Photo from Valentin Wolf / imageBROKER/Shutterstock)