The Los Angeles city attorney\u2019s office has filed a lawsuit against Airbnb, accusing the home-sharing platform of allow price gouging and unverified hosts and addresses at more than 2,000 rentals following the January firestorm in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. <\/p>\n
In a statement, L.A. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto\u2019s office accused Airbnb of allowing illegal rental price hikes and permitting false and nonexistent hosts and addresses on the platform. The lawsuit seeks a permanent order to halt Airbnb from hiking up prices during the existing state of emergency, as well as reimbursement for consumers who were charged higher rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Airbnb subsequently took steps to curtail price gouging, evidence indicates that illegal gouging on the site continues and may be ongoing,\u201d Feldstein Soto said in a statement announcing the civil enforcement action. \u201cAirbnb is aware that its verification processes are inadequate \u2026 potentially luring prospective tenants into a false sense of security about its hosts and locations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airbnb disputed the lawsuit\u2019s accusations, saying the platform has played a consistent role in supporting victims with financial aid following the wildfires.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the wildfires broke out, Airbnb \u2026 contributed nearly $30 million to fire recovery efforts in Los Angeles, including free emergency housing to nearly 24,000 people impacted by the fires,\u201d an Airbnb spokesperson told The Times. \u201cWe will continue supporting the city of Los Angeles in its recovery and rebuilding efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks fines of $2,500 for each instance of alleged price gouging in L.A., which could reach between 2,000 and 3,000 properties, or up to $7.5 million in total penalties.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also alleges that Airbnb\u2019s \u201cinadequate\u201d verification processes left users vulnerable to offenses such as identity theft, robbery, sexual assault, invasion of privacy and voyeurism. Airbnb did not respond to an inquiry from The Times regarding those claims. <\/p>\n
The unverified and \u201cnonexistent\u201d hosts alleged in the lawsuit refer to cases of hosts using fake names to represent themselves on the platform. <\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, cases include a profile under the name of \u201cAmber Hiller\u201d that actually belonged to a woman named Akila Nourollah, and a host named \u201cGreg,\u201d verified using the ID of someone named Guven Sacikarali, a relative of the actual account controller, Ali Sacikaral.<\/p>\n
While not the correct name of the account owners, Airbnb does allow the use of \u201cpreferred names\u201d in its terms and conditions.<\/a><\/p>\n The lawsuit also mentions several cases in which verified locations on Airbnb were actually located up to four miles away from the advertised address.<\/p>\n If price gouging claims are determined to be true, the lawsuit claims that Airbnb can be found to have violated the state\u2019s Unfair Competition Law, California Penal Code Section 396, the Anti-Gouging Law, and the Jan. 16 state of emergency<\/a> declaration by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which states that it would be illegal for Airbnb to increase the pricing of rentals by more than 10% during the state of emergency.<\/p>\n The firestorm that erupted on Jan. 7 ultimately destroyed more than 16,000 buildings in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena.<\/p>\n In January, Airbnb released a statement denouncing price gouging and promising to make it impossible for hosts to raise the prices of their properties by more than 10% from their pre-wildfire rates.<\/p>\n \u201cWith tens of thousands of people currently displaced in the Los Angeles area and the prospect of that figure continuing to increase, the last thing anyone should encounter is pricing for a hotel room or a home that seeks to take advantage of a desperate situation,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n The company also pledged to give free $1,000 vouchers to fire victims for Airbnb stays. By Jan. 28, more than 11,000 vouchers had been sent out. However, some fire victims claimed<\/a> that strict regulations and a lack of response to applications made the vouchers essentially useless.<\/p>\n While the state of emergency declaration aimed to prevent rental price hikes during and following the fires, previous Times reporting revealed<\/a> that prices had continued to balloon in parts of L.A., leaving those without shelter with little options besides expensive stays.<\/p>\n An Airbnb spokesperson said the cap on increasing rental prices following the fires stayed firm, allowing for no illegal increases.<\/p>\n The company cited California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta\u2019s early statements, which praised Airbnb\u2019s promises to comply with the state\u2019s emergency declarations.<\/p>\n