Prague proposes anti-Airbnb bill to parliament

The City of Prague is preparing an amendment to the Trade Act law which would allow municipalities to control or shut down online accommodations platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. The amended law would empower municipalities to limit the number of people who could stay in one flat, to limit the number of days or simply to ban them outright. City councilor Hana Kordová Marvanová presented the bill she worked on together with the Ministry for Regional Development to the Prague city assembly. "We don't have sufficient legal regulations the way they do elsewhere in the world to be able to get these types of services under some type of reasonable control," she said. Opposition parties aren't fighting the bill, but they warn that the initiative is unlikely to meet with success in parliament. One assembly member Patrik Nacher, who is also a parliamentary deputy, said deputies in the legislative body don't like it when Prague tries to solve its problems with nationwide laws.