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The EU Would Very Much Like Airbnb To Know That the Rules Are Different in Europe (fortune.com)
Airbnb is facing fresh regulatory pressure in Europe. But this time it's not about the short-term home rental platform's core business model -- it's about its terms and conditions, and the way the company presents pricing to consumers. From a report: On Monday, the European Commission and a number of EU consumer watchdogs accused Airbnb of breaking consumer law. If the company does not change the way it operates by the end of August, then it could face legal action. Specifically, the regulators said Airbnb must show people total prices up-front that include all charges and fees, and it must clearly tell customers whether a property is being offered by a private host or a professional. The American company's terms and conditions are illegal under EU law for a variety of reasons, the regulators added. For example, the company tells people in the EU that they cannot sue a host in cases of personal harm or other damages, and it claims it can unilaterally change its terms and conditions without giving customers a warning and the option of cancelling their contracts. These sorts of terms might fly in the U.S., but they're banned in Europe.
But they've got this right. Glad to see them doing the right thing.
If you do not like the laws, do not do business in the country. Can you imagine what would happen if AB InBev (A Belgian-Brazillian company, stationed about 100m from where I live) would start selling beer to 16 year olds because that is what they do in the home countries?
No matter how stupid the law is, you must follow it and let the people decide what those laws are.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
The U.S. government should not allow companies to manipulate, trick, and otherwise abuse customers.
They shouldn't but they routinely do. The love to hide behind the fiction that many contracts are somehow not one sided and abusive because they are theoretically (though not really) optional.
It is shocking and extremely unpleasant to see how much dishonesty there is in U.S. advertising, and the extreme weakness of the U.S. government in preventing abuse.
Well, one party has been trying to do something about it, albeit meekly and in a pathetically limited way. The other party screams loudly that regulation is the devil no matter how sane the regulation might actually be and works tirelessly to permit companies to behave as badly as possible. End result is that we get screwed unless we are rich enough to fight the system.
The EU generally doesn't investigate stuff like this itself, it relies on member states' own consumer watchdogs to do it and then bring the case to them if it looks like an EU wide issue. Unfortunately that does mean that it can be a bit slow.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The third-world of the first-world. The USA has seen better days, and most of us know it.
I have learned to research it when I plan my vacations so it’s not a problem, just annoying.
It is annoying but it is also a problem. It permits de-facto false advertising of prices. The price should be the price. Taxes, fees, markups, etc should all be rolled in, whatever they happen to be. I don't really care what the tax is in your jurisdiction - I just care what the out the door price is and that is what I should be able to compare. If this makes businesses under the jurisdiction of some local government less competitive then they should petition to have the taxes reduced.
Perhaps you missed this one:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html
World Health Organizations wants to encourage breast feeding. US milk formula lobby opposed it. So USA tries to remove the wording encouraging breast feeding. Fails. US then threatens the bill sponsor, Equador, with military and trade sanctions to force them to stop sponsoring the bill! Equador withdraws the bill.
Russia then sponsors the bill, USA shuts up, says nothing, lets the bill pass.
US starts a trade war with Canada, not over the milk exports (there's no such thing as fresh milk exports, its too expensive to ship *chilled* milk long distances), but milk *protein* exports. The same group of companies, the same type of product.
US has a trade *surplus* with Canada, and USA screws it over on things like pharmaceuticals import bans. Yet it starts a trade war over whey protein.
So the current pecking order is Russia > US Milk Powder Companies > Canada > Nursing Mothers
Riiiiiight.
So forget about legitimate public policy issues, where your position might actually have widespread support.
Instead, let's focus on OMG RUSSIANS!!!!!!;2!;122!!!!!!