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SAN FRANCISCO—In a Thursday hearing, a federal judge appeared greatly skeptical that Airbnb and other short-term rental websites should be able to halt a new local law imposed by the city and county of San Francisco that would require the company to verify listings with the city first.
“How does facilitating the rental of an unregistered short-term unit constitute a lawful transaction?” US District Judge James Donato asked of Jonathan Blavin, an attorney representing Airbnb.
As Ars reported previously, the new 2016 San Francisco law expands upon a previous ordinance that Airbnb itself helped initially draft. That ordinance requires hosts to have registration numbers and pay a $50 fee for the privilege. (According to NBC Bay Area that fee will rise to $250 next month.) The ordinance is designed to provide the city with additional revenue and to help regulate housing stock in a city where the median one-bedroom apartment rent is over $3,800—one of the highest in the nation.
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Source: Ars Technica – Judge pushes back on Airbnb’s attempt to stop San Francisco’s new rental law