Although some labor rules could use some updating, this is a big win for employees who serve at the mercy and the whims of on-demand economy companies.
Despite 88 filed lawsuits in the U.S. -- and now VAT issues in Europe -- the hotel occupancy tax issue has mostly been manageable for Expedia and the other online travel agencies. The sky indeed has not fallen.
Were contributions from the travel industry to Brand USA intended to go directly back to the contributing company, at a 30 percent or greater premium, instead of funding broader marketing campaigns to promote inbound tourism to the U.S? That is part of what this lawsuit is about.
There are holes in the arguments of both the City of San Francisco and HomeAway. The new short-term rental law would indeed put HomeAway in the new position of collecting taxes from renters, and HomeAway could find a way in its business model to make that happen. Still, the new law does appear to favor Airbnb, which already collects fees from guests.
The Priceline Group and OpenTable wanted to sweep away these pesky shareholder lawsuits to get on with the task at hand -- closing the acquisition. In reaching a settlement, OpenTable had to open the curtain a bit more into how it went about conducting the sale process.
Neither American Airlines nor Sabre got exactly what they wanted in their protracted lawsuits, but Sabre was clearly the loser. American didn't obtain an edict that the global distribution industry is an anticompetitive monopoly, but it forced Sabre to cease its hostile acts and picked up a $200 million settlement in the bargain.
The HomeAway suit against Airbnb ended with no attorneys' fees being paid to the other side, a withdrawn advertising campaign, and perhaps some hurt feelings. All's well that end's well, but the two companies are on a collision course that won't be resolved in a courtroom.