Airbnb has agreed to hand over information about its New York hosts in order to comply with a subpoena it received last week from the New York Attorney General.
The NYAG’s office had claimed that “more than 60 percent of the service’s listings in New York City on Jan. 31 appeared to violate a 2010 law targeting illicit hotels,” Bloomberg reports.
Crain’s New York today published a letter of agreement that was signed yesterday between Airbnb General Counsel Belinda Johnson and Clark Russell, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Internet Bureau in the New York Attorney General’s Office. According to the agreement, Airbnb will deliver within 30 days to the NYAG anonymized data about its customers who list properties for rent in New York. The home-sharing service will redact hosts’ names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and social media account information, as well as social security and tax ID numbers and specific payment information.
The agreement permits Airbnb to replace hosts’ names and apartment or unit numbers with unique identifiers, but requires that it turn over that information, as well as all of the other redacted data, about hosts who become “subject of investigation or potential enforcement action by NYAG or New York City Office of Special Enforcements” within the following 12 months.
Airbnb also agreed that it will mail to all current New York hosts, as well as require review by all hosts of newly listed New York properties, a document that offers information about the New York State Dwelling Law, hotel sales tax, rent regulation, New York City zoning code, business licensing, and other rules. The document also advises that Airbnb hosts consult a local lawyer or tax professional.
New York is among 34,000 cities around the world where Airbnb says its hosts list properties for rent.
