Why governments are afraid of Uber and Airbnb
It wasn’t a great week for Airbnb. Last Tuesday, representatives of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and lawyers for the apartment sublet company Airbnb met in an Albany court. At issue is a broad subpoena issued last fall, demanding that Airbnb turn over information about its “hosts” (those who list their apartments) in the belief that thousands of them are in violation of the law by acting as de facto unregistered hotels. Then, on Wednesday, the San Francisco…