HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of New York
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:18-cv-07742
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In HomeAway.com v. City of New York, Judge Engelmayer dismissed the unopposed action as moot after Local Law 64 changed the challenged requirements.
HomeAway.com, Inc. and the City of New York; the case was closed after the court dismissed the action as moot.
What happened
HomeAway.com challenged the constitutionality of New York City Local Law 146 of 2018, which imposed reporting requirements on booking services. The court had previously blocked that law from taking effect through a preliminary injunction.
The City later enacted Local Law 64 of 2020, which eliminated some of the challenged requirements and substantially changed others. The City asked the court to dismiss the case as moot, and HomeAway did not oppose the request.
Judge Engelmayer granted the City's unopposed request and dismissed the action as moot because the new law addressed the issues in the case. He directed the Clerk of Court to close the case.
The detailed version
- HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of New York · No. 1:18-cv-07742
- Paul Engelmayer
- Oct. 7, 2020
Background
HomeAway.com, Inc. challenged the constitutionality of New York City Local Law No. 146 of 2018. That law imposed reporting requirements on HomeAway and other booking services. On January 3, 2019, the court issued a preliminary injunction, which prevented Local Law 146 from taking effect.
After that ruling, the City and Airbnb, Inc., another booking service that had challenged Local Law 146, entered into a settlement agreement. Under the agreement, the City would enact a new law changing the reporting requirements. In July 2020, the City enacted Local Law No. 64 of 2020. The new law eliminated some requirements from Local Law 146 and limited several others. Airbnb then voluntarily dismissed its claims.
Motion and Ruling
The City sent a letter asking the court to dismiss HomeAway's action as moot. A case is moot when later events have addressed the dispute so that the court no longer needs to resolve it. HomeAway did not oppose the request.
The court found that the parts of City law underlying the lawsuit either no longer existed or had been substantially amended by Local Law 64. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer therefore granted the City's unopposed request and dismissed the action as moot. The court directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. The opinion does not state that the dismissal was with or without prejudice.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.