Portland May Subpoena Short-Term Rentals for Host Data

Portland Commissioner Nick Fish said the subpoenas could be considered "friendly" by those companies, in that they offer a legal excuse to disclose user data they otherwise agree not to in their privacy policies.

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(TNS) -- Portland is taking legal aim at another sector of the so-called "gig economy."

The Portland City Council is expected to weigh whether to give city regulators the authority to subpoena vacation-rental sites like Airbnb and HomeAway, compelling them to turn over information on hosts using the platforms to advertise rooms or homes for rent.

The subpoenas would seek user information to expose unregistered listings that haven't been inspected or aren't paying hotel taxes, as required under city code.

Since 2015, the city has directed lodging taxes from short-term rentals toward its affordable housing efforts.

Commissioner Nick Fish said he expects the city council to consider the idea at the same time as it weighs hitting Uber with a subpoena in its investigation of the ride-hailing company's efforts to dodge city regulators in 2015.

"There are too many companies that are not policing the hosts and making sure that the units are safe," Fish said.

The city's Bureau of Development Services said there were 3,000 properties offering short-term rentals in Portland late last year, but that only about 22 percent had obtained the required permits.

Fish said the subpoenas could be considered "friendly" by those companies, in that they offer a legal excuse to disclose user data they otherwise agree not to in their privacy policies.

But the big players in the vacation-rental industry aren't likely to take that position.

The city has had a particularly antagonistic relationship with HomeAway, and the two have traded lawsuits over the city's rules.

That company says it can neither collect lodging taxes for its users nor turn over a list of its members for the city to contact directly. It further argued that the city didn't have the authority to force a rental facilitator like HomeAway to collect the taxes.

The legal wrangling prompted a measure on the May ballot, Measure 26-194, which would explicitly allow the city to collect lodging taxes from businesses that facilitate short-term rentals, rather than the owners of the rentals themselves.

Regulators have also been frustrated by industry leader Airbnb, whose website obscures the exact location of rentals and makes it difficult to detect those operating without a license.

That company, however, has collected lodging taxes and remitted them to the city on its users' behalf since 2014.

"This type of action is avoidable by working together on a comprehensive solution," Airbnb spokeswoman Laura Rillos said in an email. "We remain committed to working with the City of Portland to streamline the onerous registration process to increase permitting compliance and allow Portland families to continue sharing their homes to make ends meet."

The prospect of the subpoenas came a day after Commissioner Dan Saltzman said the city council would consider a legislative subpoena to force Uber to turn over details of its "Greyball" program to dodge city regulators.

That followed a monthlong investigation into the practice, which Uber admitted it used in Portland in 2014, when the company was operating in the city illegally.

Bryce Bennet, Uber's Oregon general manager, said in a statement Friday afternoon that the company had been forthcoming with the city. He also took aim at Fish, who called early on for the city to use its subpoena power to force the company to turn over information.

"It is unfortunate this investigation and the report have become so politically charged, and that Commissioner Fish has used the process to make baseless claims about our conduct in Portland," Bennet said in the statement.

The city's full report on its investigation into Uber was posted online Friday.

©2017 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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