Reuters
- Airbnb is lifting its forced arbitration clause for users or hosts in sexual harassment and assault cases.
- The company said it stopped requiring arbitration procedures for these cases in 2019.
- The updated terms of service update is expected to rollout later this fall.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Airbnb will no longer force hosts or guests into forced arbitration for sexual assault or harassment claims, allowing them the option of bringing their cases against the company to court.
"We believe that survivors should be able to bring claims in whatever forum is best for them," the company said in a statement Friday.
The home-share company said it has already stopped asking courts to force existing cases of sexual harassment and assault into arbitration and will continue to do so until the standard is codified in the app's terms of service this fall.
This change reflects a promise the company made in 2018 to lift arbitration requirements for Airbnb employees in cases of sexual harassment. It also removed the arbitration requirement for workplace discrimination cases in 2018. Mandatory arbitration is a corporate practice whereby employees waive their right to take some employer disputes to court and instead must settle the matters privately.
Airbnb was one of several tech companies, including Google, Apple, Uber, and eBay, to do away with their mandated arbitration clauses at the height of the Time's Up and #MeToo movement.
"Incidents of sexual assault are extremely rare on Airbnb, but in these rare cases, Airbnb's highly-trained Safety team works with survivors to put their wellbeing first," Airbnb said.
Airbnb handles thousands of sexual assault allegations every year, Insider previously reported, with many of them ending up going through arbitration and nondisclosure agreements.
The update to the terms of service is expected to launch later in the fall.
"Paramount to building trust is doing the right thing in the rare instances where things go wrong," the company added.
Airbnb did not have any further comment on the update and whether it plans to extend it to cases involving other types of violent assault.