New York state on Friday tightened rules on home-sharing services like Airbnb Inc, slapping a steep fine on people who rent their entire, unoccupied apartment for fewer than 30 days.
Airbnb immediately fired back, saying it would sue to keep the law from taking effect.
State officials “rewarded a special interest — the price-gouging hotel industry — and ignored the voices of tens of thousands of New Yorkers,” said Josh Meltzer, Airbnb’s head of public policy in New York.
“A majority of New Yorkers have embraced home sharing, and we will continue to fight for a smart policy solution that works for the people, not the powerful,” he said.
“We are filing a lawsuit in New York this afternoon,” Meltzer added.
A New York state law on the books since 2010 already prohibits renting an entire apartment for fewer than 30 days if the owner or lessor is not present.
The new law forbids advertising for this kind of short-term rental and imposes a fine up to US$7,500.
New York state is one of the most lucrative markets for rental site Airbnb, with about 46,000 people offering lodging online.
In New York City, real estate and rental prices are so high that three-quarters of the Airbnb hosts use the proceeds simply to be able to remain in their apartments, Airbnb said.
Airbnb is in the crosshairs of many cities around the world, where tourism industries see this increasingly popular type of home sharing, lacking the legal and tax constraints of commercial enterprises, as threatening revenue.
Paris, notably, has quadrupled the amount of penalties for home owners who violate regulations — from 25,000 euros to 100,000 euros (US$27,215 to US$108,860).
Last week, officials of nine US cities — including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles — sent a joint letter to the US Federal Trade Commission accusing Airbnb and other short-term rental companies of a “lack of reliable, complete data” on the number of rentals and the amount of revenue.
“Unfortunately, the industry has, according to news sources, stymied cities’ efforts to access this data by providing misleading data and opposing requirements that short-term rental companies share complete and reliable data with the public,” they wrote.
“It is very difficult for cities to develop policies that protect the public interest without an adequate understanding of how this growing industry is impacting our communities,” they wrote, calling on the commission to study whether individuals or firms are acting in a commercial manner.
Airbnb operates in more than 190 countries and has been valued at an estimated US$30 billion.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day