Nestor Davidson was quoted in an American Bar Association article about regulatory issues surrounding the sharing economy.
Legal and industry experts explored the regulatory issues surrounding sharing economy on the program, “The Sharing Economy Matures — Will State or Local Control Win?” during the 2017 ABA Annual Meeting in New York. The panel also reviewed local versus state conflict, what local legislators think and how to create greater collaboration between state and local governments as it relates to sharing economy. The program was sponsored by the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law.
“When we talk about the landscape for the sharing economy it’s a more complex landscape than Uber, Lyft and Airbnb where most of the attention has been,” said Nestor Davidson, an associate professor of Law at Fordham University.
To understand the industry, Davidson said you must recognize that the sharing economy goes beyond ride-sharing and short-term rentals. He said there is a “broad sector” of sharing economy, which includes the sharing of boats, bikes, airplanes, space rockets, office space, farmland, sports equipment, clothes and even science laboratories, amongst others.
Davidson, whose expertise is in local government law, noted that Arizona, Florida, New York and Utah have recently “stepped in” to exercise their authority to restrict short-term rentals. But he cautions against states rushing in and hampering local variations.
“It’s the price we have to pay to allow the interplay for local government in an industry that looks vastly different every six months,” Davidson said. “States are moving too quickly to shut down that dialogue between sharing companies. In the long run, we’ll lose interesting policy innovation.”