A judge has ruled that Airbnb cannot stop a San Francisco law passed earlier this year that requires Airbnb hosts to pay the city a $50 registration fee to list a rental on the site.
The law requires hosts to post their city-provided registration numbers on short-term rental sites, such as Airbnb. If a user posts a listing without the registration number, both the user and the short-term rental company can be held civilly and criminally liable. Airbnb and similar sites would be fined $1,000 for each booking from an unlicensed host.
In making its case, Airbnb said in a hearing last month that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects the company from being found liable for speech (posted listings) made by its users.
The judge dismissed this argument, writing in his ruling, “As the text and plain meaning of the Ordinance demonstrate, it in no way treats plaintiffs as the publishers or speakers of the rental listings provided by hosts. It does not regulate what can or cannot be said or posted in the listings. It creates no obligation on plaintiffs’ part to monitor, edit, withdraw or block the content supplied by hosts.”