After an Amsterdam resident won €470 back from Airbnb when three local judges ruled that the vacation rental service can't legally charge a fee to both the renter and the landlord, it started a flood of claims by others who had been charged.
Now, Airbnb, which says the Dutch law doesn't apply to it since, in its view, it's simply a technology platform and not a real estate operation, is not only suing companies that have been collecting and assisting with the thousands of claims, it's also suing twenty individual renters. The individuals, like the companies, have each received not only a court summons but hundreds of pages of legal documents.
Airbnb's suits are a way around the fact that it did not have a right to appeal the original judgement. The original complainant, Nicolaas Huppes, was one of those served, even though there is no money involved because he already received his refund. Others with claims as small as €40 were sued.
Huppes showed reporters, his pile of Airbnb paper, and said "These are the kind of paper bombs they are sending to their own customers, which is of course ridiculous. The Court of Amsterdam says that renters have the right to ask back the unduly paid service fee, and then Airbnb attacks the customers who follow the ruling of the court."
Airbnb hopes its cases will get to a hearing at a higher court and that it will be in their favor; for that they are apparently willing to risk what could turn into a public relations disaster.
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