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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.
AirBnB "tells people ... 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."
The U.S. government should not allow companies to manipulate, trick, and otherwise abuse customers.
"... the [EU] 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."
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.
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.
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