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Airbnb is a company that defies definition and because of this it threatens traditional real estate brokers. To slow down the busy travel platform, different groups have filed class action suits against it. Interestingly, the plaintiffs are not in the travel industry and are not competitors. The plaintiffs are real estate brokers who claim that Airbnb is harming their businesses.

Why bring class action suits against Airbnb?

One such case is Parker Madison Partners v. Airbnb (16-cv-0839). In this case Parker Madison has not shown any type injury that courts usually require to bring a suit of this nature to fruition. Park Madison has not yet shown how Airbnb is harming its brokers in any material or financial way. Prior to the Parker Madison suit, Airbnb was sued in Plazza v. Airbnb. In this suit, which happened to be the second one from the same group, nothing came of it as Airbnb moved to arbitration. The argument is that the lawyers who represented Plazza simply wanted to attack Airbnb and contrived the suit to do it.

Why Airbnb was allowed have it dismissed

In the latest suit, which involved Parker Madison, the US District Judge Vernon Broderick allowed Airbnb to dismiss the case. Judge Broderick decided that Parker Madison did not have any standing that merited a case against the travel site. The brokers at Parker Madison wanted to bring a class action suit against Airbnb. Because Airbnb’s business model is not designed to function like a real estate broker. The travel platform does not have a license to broker real estate in New York. This is where Parker Madison takes issue with Airbnb. Parker Madison does have a license and is following the rules that are established for real estate brokers. However, Judge Broderick decided that Parker Madison did not have any reason to claim that Airbnb was harming the brokerage. Unfortunately for Parker Madison, the fact that the two businesses are run in very different ways, Parker Madison was unable to show any correlation between the two.

Is it possible to win against Airbnb?

Parker Madison has claimed that Airbnb has taken clients from them, but due to the nature of the businesses, Parker Madison did not have proof of the accusation. Without that proof, Judge Broderick had no choice but to choose to dismiss the case against Airbnb. Parker Madison would need to prove that the two businesses function in similar ways to be able to prove any type of damage that Airbnb would cause. It appears that Parker Madison was not prepared for its case against Airbnb, because it was not able to respond to questions from the judge when it had the opportunity to fight against the motion to dismiss.