Nice Hotels Sue Airbnb Over Illegal Holiday Rentals

Hotels in Nice are suing AirBnb! A group of 26 hotels are suing AirBnb for €9.2M for lost revenue through not enforcing restrictions on registering holiday rental properties with the Town Hall. They counted 3,673 apartments being rented out in Nice on AirBnb that are not registered. A spokesman for the group pointed out that the hotels have no problem with private people renting out their holiday homes, though they are not happy that they are not required to adhere to any health and safety standards that hotels are forced to, but that the illegal AirBnbs are obviously not declaring any taxes which means that they can afford to undercut the hotel prices. They say that by not removing these illegal rentals once pointed out then AirBnb is aiding and abetting "unfair competition". They also want AirBnb to implement safeguards ensuring their adverts are accurate regarding that it has permission from the real owner, so not an illegal sublet, and that the advert is disabled when the 120 days are passed for a primary residence or when the Town Hall registration number is either missing or invalid. Though this sounds reasonable in principle, there are laws already regulating exactly this and a Town Hall department in place to enforce it. I'm not convinced AirBnb will be held liable. It goes to court this September.