Europe wants Airbnb and pals to cough up rental property logs
- Reference: 1667896387
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/11/08/eu_airbnb_regulation/
- Source link:
It's hoped this data will give continental cities an idea of how much property is being used for the tourist trade – rather than as homes – at a time of housing shortages. Identifying when and where property is illegally rented out to visitors contrary to zoning is another aim.
European lawmakers also believe short-term rental businesses, which advertise homes and handle payment between hosts and travelers, should disclose to public authorities once a month the number of guests staying at individual properties, and the number of nights they stayed.
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The system through which companies hand this info to agencies should be automatic, according to [2]a proposal [PDF] published Monday. The rules would also force hosts to register their properties as rental homes targeted at tourists.
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Upon registration, landlords would receive an official unique registration number. This system would also allow officials to identify and clamp down on unauthorized listings – homes that aren't allowed to be rented to visitors due to local regulations.
"The short-term accommodation rental sector has been boosted by the platform economy but has not developed with sufficient transparency," Margrethe Vestager, the EU's Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, [5]said in a statement.
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"With this proposal, we are making it easier for hosts and platforms, big or small, to contribute to greater transparency in the sector. These sector-specific rules will complement the general rules of the Digital Services Act, which establish a set of obligations and accountability requirements for platforms operating in the EU."
The move to regulate the short-term rental market comes as top European tourist destinations such as Paris and Barcelona suffer from lack of housing for people who want to live there. Although Airbnb properties attract and boost tourism, long-term residents struggle to find affordable places to live as available housing is offered just to tourists and visitors.
The European Commission hopes the proposed rules will, if passed, regulate the rental market, and provide more data to inform tourism and housing policies in the future. Building more homes and tackling NIMBYism would probably help, too – but what do we know?
[7]Airbnb turns its anti-partying tech on American lodgers
[8]Moscow court fines Pinterest, Airbnb, Twitch, UPS for not storing data locally
[9]EU law threatening 'commercially painful changes' for tech out tonight
[10]UK.gov pledges probe into tourists' 'motivations'
Lawmakers believe the rules need to be passed since companies probably won't willingly hand over private data. "Limiting EU action to promoting voluntary action by the industry and certain accompanying measures is possible. It would probably not be effective, however, because it would rely on the industry's own willingness to change the status quo," the document states.
The proposal still needs to be discussed and voted on by the European Parliament and the European Council. If the rules pass, member states will have two years to develop the platforms needed to exchange the data.
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"These proposals provide a framework for Airbnb to scale our collaborations with governments and make it easier for everyday Europeans to share their homes and follow the rules," Airbnb's head of EU public policy, Georgina Browes, said in a statement shared with [12]Reuters . ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y2o2yF80DYqWBF3jmcB3bAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-11/COM_2022_571_1_EN_ACT_part1_v7.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y2o2yF80DYqWBF3jmcB3bAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y2o2yF80DYqWBF3jmcB3bAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_6493
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y2o2yF80DYqWBF3jmcB3bAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/17/airbnb_antiparty_technology/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/30/moscow_court_fines_pinterest_airbnb/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/24/eu_law_threatening_commercially_painful/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/28/uk_gov_pledges_probe_into_tourist_motivations/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y2o2yF80DYqWBF3jmcB3bAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-wants-airbnb-rivals-share-bookings-data-with-authorities-2022-11-07/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What about income tax?
Thing is the EU is made up of 27 countries, each of which has their own tax systems. It's almost as if they are 27 sovereign countries.
Fancy that.
Re: What about income tax?
Noooo says it’s not true! Surely the UK has more control now?
Re: What about income tax?
Thing is the EU is made up of 27 countries, each of which has their own tax systems
Even now after one member that more often than not choose to go its own way instead of finding a european solution made an exit it is quite unlikely the remaining countries will agree on a tax system for the common market. Can't give away our room to manouevre, can we?
However all the member states have a common interest in making the Airbnb landlords hand over the royalties due in their country of residence so there's a good chance the european council of ministers will find a consensus in this case.
It had to happen
That being said, I wonder exactly how precise those reports are going to be.
Not giving out any specifics, but I rented an RB&B flat once (a few years ago). It was such a nice place that I returned the year after that.
At that point, I had the landlord's phone number. Guess what ? He told me that, instead of going through the website, I could just call him to rent and, if it worked out, he'd give me 10% off (paid in cash because duh).
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who has that kind of agreement that completely bypasses any control.
Re: It had to happen
They don't care about tracking down every off-the-books transaction that ever occurs, they know it's impossible. They're interested in huge companies that potentially facilitate and record many thousands of those transactions. Low hanging fruit and all that.
Re: It had to happen
That's fairly common: landlords save 15-20% commission by renting directly and are happy to do so once they known the customers. Most countries also allow people to rent out their accommodation for a few days a year. The problems started with AirBnB allowing flats in some places to be rented almost all the time with a severe impact on rents and living conditions in places like Barcelona and Berlin.
The business model for Airbnb is to circumvent the laws and rules. There were already many sites for renting holiday homes, but those sites needed to comply with local laws. In fact: there is seldom additional law or regulation required. So the regulation in most counties only states explicitly that Airbnb and the landlords also need to obey the law.
> The business model for Airbnb is to circumvent the laws and rules.
There are all sorts of laws and rules that landlords need to follow like safety inspections, smoke & CO monitors, energy efficiency is about to join the list. If these website are facilitating landlords bypassing these regulations then they are already presumably breaking the existing laws. Short term rentals are presumably more difficult here, some of the safety checks need to be annual (gas safety certs) while others need to be carried out at the start of each new tenancy (alarms).
What about income tax?
I assume making sure people who rent their flat declare it as income is also coincidentally a benefit for governments...