This story is so terrible and infuriating it deserves the admittedly click-baitish headline. And it speaks to something broader, the continuing trend of corporations, particularly corporations who make up the so-called "sharing economy," of absolving themselves through their business models of any responsibility or liability for their actions, while they continue to generate staggering profits for themselves.
Early in the evening of July 4, Micaela Giles’s mobile phone started sounding alerts, and a series of messages straight out of a horror movie began scrolling down her screen.
Her 19-year-old son told her that his Airbnb host in Madrid had locked him in the fourth-floor apartment where he was supposed to be staying and removed the key. The host was still there, he said, rattling knives around in the kitchen drawer and pressing him to submit to a sexual act. He begged his mother for help.
When she called Airbnb, its employees would not give her the address and would not call the police.
Rather than contact the police themselves, Airbnb told the mother to contact the police, giving her a number that was useless and led to a recorded message. When she tried to call Airbnb back she got sent into voicemail. Meanwhile her son was sexually assaulted. After the assault he managed to escape, barely, and he is now still in therapy, having returned to Massachusetts.
But the central question here is for Airbnb: Just how much responsibility is it willing to assume for the safety of its customers? It refers to them as guests and promotes its security measures and hospitality. But its employees made a choice here that a hotel might not make in similar circumstances. Rather than sending someone to check on Mr. Lopez, Airbnb put the onus on his mother to make that happen.
Airbnb, Uber and their ilk have managed to get people to refer to them as pioneers of something called the sharing economy, a neat trick given that they are in the business of renting out rooms and charging for rides.
What they don't do is is accept the responsibility and liability that comes from running a hospitality business--the same type of responsibility that "normal" businesses, such as hotel chains, assume through insurance. Airbnb purportedly changed its policy in responding to reported emergencies after this incident, but its essential character remains unchanged. Airbnb expects its networked hosts and guests--both of whom they make money from--to assume liability. In other words, they are making huge amounts of money
without doing much of anything. All of the
responsibility falls on the homeowner (in the case of Airbnb) or the driver (in the case of Uber):
Still, logic and decency would suggest that when you’re in danger, as Mr. Lopez claimed to be, Airbnb would come to your rescue. And in the wake of this episode, Airbnb said on Friday that it was clarifying its policies to make sure that its employees know to always call the police when someone reports an emergency in progress.
Ron Lieber has written up many horror stories involving the businesses that make up the "sharing economy." He
succinctly sums up their attitude:
There is a pervasive attitude in a prominent corner of the technology industry that goes something like this: If you’re helping people rent (not share, rent) spare bedrooms or rides in their cars, then the usual regulations and niggling insurance issues should not apply. Entrepreneurs start useful services, attract millions of users, cross their fingers and hope nobody dies before the government minders and other scolds catch up.
Here, for example, was Airbnb's initial response when one of its users was bitten by a dog in a listed property (which made no reference to a pet on the premises), and asked for compensation for his injury:
But Airbnb’s initial email responses politely turned him away. “Please understand our refund was an attempt to soften the impact of an unfortunate accident and to provide our best possible customer service to you,” one said. “Unfortunately, per our terms of service, we are unable to consider any request for compensation in liability scenario such as this.” Then it went on to say how much the company valued him as a guest and wished him well in his recovery.
It was only after the
New York Times reporter intervened and started asking questions that the company requested his medical bills and receipts for his lodging expenses.
The "sharing economy" is the latest darling of Wall Street venture capitalists who have showered praise on "convenience" businesses like Uber and Airbnb, which permit users to independently contract their services on an as-needed basis. The service for Uber consists of performing the usual duties of a cab driver. The service for Airbnb consists of letting out your house or property, all the while paying a percentage for the privilege of listing with Airbnb. Airbnb now does, but did not always, provide backup insurance to cover lawsuits that primary homeowners insurers would not cover due to the house being used as a rental property.
Another darling of the sharing economy, and a favorite of Republican candidate Jeb Bush, is Uber. Uber's business model is fairly simple--it does virtually nothing except provide its name through a mobile app networking a driving service made up of thousands of drivers in over 250 cities. Its background checks on these drivers are questionable. For their customers, here are their terms of service, at least what is publicly available on the web:
“Uber does not guarantee the suitability, safety or ability of third party providers. It is solely your responsibility to determine if a third party provider will meet your needs and expectations. Uber will not participate in disputes between you and a third party provider. By using the services, you acknowledge that you may be exposed to situations involving third party providers that are potentially unsafe, offensive, harmful to minors, or otherwise objectionable, and that use of third party providers arranged or scheduled using the services is at your own risk and judgement.”
So if your Uber driver is a rapist, hey, that's your problem. Just chalk it up to the sharing economy.
Here is a list of known simple assaults, sexual assaults and negligent incidents committed by Uber and Lyft drivers and involving their passengers. If you Google "rape Uber" you will get hundreds of hits in cities as diverse as LA, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Delhi.
But if you happen to be raped by an Uber driver in, say, Delhi, India, well good luck with any lawsuit against the company:
In its filing, Uber says the court should dismiss the lawsuit because the alleged victim has sued the wrong party:
“While Plaintiff undoubtedly can state a claim against her alleged assailant, she cannot state a claim against Uber US, which is the wrong party. Nor does California law govern a dispute involving an alleged wrong committed by one Indian citizen against another Indian citizen, in India.”
The company’s argument is that the alleged assailant’s contract was with Uber B.V., a Netherlands-based entity with no US operations. It seems to be on fairly safe legal ground and that’s precisely why it’s set up its corporate structure that way – the US parent company is sheltered from potential overseas liabilities.
There are many people who are perfectly happy taking advantage of these services, and many people who can point to perfectly wonderful experiences while using them. But we shouldn't lose sight of what these types of business models actually represent. What companies like Airbnb and Uber do is essentially profit off the desire of people to find less expensive alternatives in a fragile economy for services that would normally be provided by corporations who assumed responsibility for the risk through insurance, and would be expected to provide their employees with benefits such as health and worker's compensation, to name just two. In sloughing off the risk, the expense and the liability through their business models to the individual, classifying that person as an "independent contractor" or in some other capacity that eliminates their exposure to liability, they simply exemplify the same predator capitalism we have always had to contend with. There is, apparently, nothing new under the sun, after all.