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Airbnb in the European Union: The Theory and Practice of Interpreting Elements of Algorithmic Governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2021

Carlo Maria COLOMBO  and
Catalina GOANTA Open the ORCID record for Catalina GOANTA [Opens in a new window]
Carlo Maria COLOMBO
Affiliation:
Maastricht University, Department of Public Law, Maastricht, The Netherlands; email: carlo.colombo@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Catalina GOANTA
Affiliation:
Maastricht University, Department of Private Law, Maastricht, The Netherlands; email: catalina.goanta@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
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Abstract

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Type
Case Notes
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 12 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Biotechnology in International Economic Law and Human Rights , September 2021 , pp. 724 - 734
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article is a result of a common undertaking. However, Sections II–IV can be directly attributed to Carlo Maria Colombo; Section V can be directly attributed to Catalina Goanta; finally, Section I contains common reflections.

References

1 U von der Leyen, “Shaping Europe’s digital future: op-ed by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission” (European Commission, 19 February 2020) <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ac_20_260> (all links accessed 1 October 2020). On digital platforms in EU law, see, among others, V Hatzopoulos, The Collaborative Economy and EU Law (Oxford, Hart Publishing 2018); V Hatzopoulos and S Roma, “Caring for sharing? The collaborative economy under EU law”, (2017) 54 Common Market Law Review 81–128.

2 C Busch, “The Sharing Economy at the CJEU: Does Airbnb Pass the ‘Uber Test’? – Some Observations on the Pending Case C-390/18 – Airbnb Ireland” (2018) 7 Journal of European Consumer and Market Law 172–74.

3 Case C-390/18 Airbnb Ireland [2020] ECLI:EU:C:2019:336. See also P Van Cleynenbreugel, “Accommodating the freedom of online platforms to provide services through the incidental direct effect back door: Airbnb Ireland” (2020) 57 Common Market Law Review 1201–28.

4 See M Finck, “Distinguishing Internet platforms from transport services: Elite Taxi v. Uber Spain” (2018) 55 Common Market Law Review 1619–40.

5 Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market [2000] OJ L 178/1.

6 T Dogru et al, “What caused the rise of Airbnb? An examination of key macroeconomic factors” (2020) 81 Tourism Management 104134; J Jiao and S Bai, “An empirical analysis of Airbnb listings in forty American cities” (2020) 99 Cities 102618.

7 A Farmaki and S Kladou, “Why do Airbnb hosts discriminate? Examining the sources and manifestations of discrimination in host practice” (2020) 42 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 181.

8 See Airbnb Terms of Service <https://www.airbnb.com/terms>.

9 See, for instance, M Roelofsen and C Minca, “The Superhost. Biopolitics, home and community in the Airbnb dream-world of global hospitality” (2018) 91 Geoforum 170–81; C Lutz and G Newlands, “Consumer segmentation within the sharing economy: The case of Airbnb” (2018) 88 Journal of Business Research 187–196.

10 See, for instance, the decision of the Dutch Raad van de State emphasising the role of permits for vacation rentals, RvS, Judgment of 29 January 2020, ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:261.

11 Municipality of Amsterdam and Airbnb, “Memorandum of Understanding” (Municipality of Amsterdam, December 2014) <https://www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl/Uploads/2016/2/2014-12-airbnb-ireland-amsterdam-mou.pdf>. See also J Oskam, The Future of Airbnb and the Sharing Economy: The Collaborative Consumption of our Cities (Bristol, Channel View Publications 2019); J van Dijck et al, De platfoormsamenleving (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2016).

12 See, for instance, Rechtbank Amsterdam, Judgment of 27 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2018:4442.

13 A Conti, “I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb” (Vice, 31 October 2019) <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb>; A Merlan, “Here Are the Most Common Airbnb Scams Worldwide” (Vice, 31 January 2020) <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epgvm7/airbnb-scam-how-to-tell>.

14 Loi n° 70-9 du 2 janvier 1970 réglementant les conditions d’exercice des activités relatives à certaines opérations portant sur les immeubles et les fonds de commerce, Journal Officiel de la République française 4 Jan. 1970, p 142.

15 Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market [2006] OJ L 376/36.

16 Case 120/78, Rewe-Zentral AG v Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein [1979] ECLI:EU:C:1979:42.

17 Case C-390/18 Airbnb Ireland [2020] ECLI:EU:C:2019:336, Opinion of AG Szpunar.

18 Case C-434/15 Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi [2017] ECLI:EU:C:2017:981.

19 C-320/16 Uber France [2018] ECLI:EU:C:2018:221.

20 Opinion of AG Szpunar, supra, note 17, para 18.

21 ibid, para 41.

22 Case C-108/09 Ker-Optika [2010] ECLI:EU:C:2010:725.

23 Opinion of AG Szpunar, supra, note 17, para 49.

24 ibid, para 57.

25 Opinion of AG Szpunar, supra, note 17, para 73.

26 ibid, para 77.

27 Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications [2005] OJ L 255; Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market [2007] OJ L 319; Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services [2015] OJ L 241.

28 Airbnb Ireland, supra, note 3, para 39.

29 ibid, para 52.

30 ibid, para 68.

31 Case C-194/94 CIA Security International [1996] ECLI:EU:C:1996:172.

32 Airbnb Ireland, supra, note 3, para 55.

33 M Stewart, “The Real Estate Sector is Using Algorithms to Work Out the Best Places to Gentrify” (Failed Architecture, 11 February 2019) <https://failedarchitecture.com/the-extractive-growth-of-artificially-intelligent-real-estate/>.

34 ibid.

35 Airbnb Ireland, supra, note 3, para 54.

36 ibid, para 40.

37 Para 71.2, Airbnb Terms of Service <https://www.airbnb.com/terms#sec201910_7>.

38 Para 7.2., Airbnb Payment Terms <https://www.airbnb.com/terms/payments_terms>.

39 Airbnb Service fee page <https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857/what-is-the-airbnb-service-fee>.

40 N Rice, “What you need to know about the new Airbnb service fee structure and why hosts don’t need to worry” (The Airbnb Course, 11 June 2019) <https://theairbnbcourse.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-airbnb-service-fee-structure-and-why-hosts-dont-need-to-worry/>. Hosts seem to have been equally confused with the calculation of fees on Airbnb (Airbnb Community Center, 26 February 2017) <https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/What-is-the-percentage-of-the-guest-service-fee-What-is-the/td-p/334499>.

41 Airbnb (Airbnb Help Center, 2020) <https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1168/how-do-i-turn-smart-pricing-on-or-off>.

42 (Airbnb Community Center, 16 May 2016) <https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Smart-Pricing/td-p/89336>.

43 Airhosts Forum (Airhosts Forum, February 2019) <https://airhostsforum.com/t/how-well-does-smart-pricing-work-when-demand-is-high-due-to-local-events/29797/33>.

44 A Peshin et al, “Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization of Airbnb Dataset” (2018) <http://www.columbia.edu/~sg3637/airbnb_final_analysis.html>.

45 Y Yakimova, “Digital Services: managing harmful content while protecting freedom of expression” (European Parliament, 1 October 2020) <https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20200925IPR87926/digital-services-managing-harmful-content-while-protecting-freedom-of-expression>.