Airbnb Finds Itself In The Middle Of A Lawsuit; Couple Accuses Website For Copying Their Place

Airbnb again found itself in a middle of controversy as a French couple sued the listing site for allegedly copying their apartment for its San Francisco HQ.

According to the Buzzfeed article, Airbnb has all but replicated the apartment down to the last details.

Caroline O'Donovan reported that Zoé de Las Cases and husband, Benjamin Dewé, are constant travelers and during one of their trips to Japan, they rented out their Paris apartment to Airbnb for the company's launch party in Paris.

"We said great, we're designers," Benjamin Dewé told the site. "We already used to rent our place for commercials."

But Airbnb has never made it a secret that the office spaces and the conference rooms in its San Francisco HQ are based on real apartments that have garnered attention from its listings. The problem, however, was that the company didn't ask permission from the couple, hence the lawsuit.

Benjamin Dewé isn't very optimistic about winning the lawsuit against Airbnb, based on the assessment of their counsel.

"She said it will be hard to win, because they're not French," he said. "They're big. And they have money to lose."

Instead of the lawsuit, the designer wants to be recompensed by Airbnb but the company is so far not budging.

This wasn't the first time that Airbnb found itself in the middle of a controversy.

Last month, a lawsuit was filed by a live-in employee against couple Varsha Rao, Airbnb global operations head, and Cameron Poetzscher, Uber corporate development head, for sexual harassment and wage theft.

Complainant Julieta Yang claimed in her lawsuit that she was subjected to a "sexually hostile work and home environment" as well as being deprived of her minimum wage and overtime pay.

For their part, the couple released a statement to San Francisco Weekly which read, "We are both deeply shocked and saddened by these allegations - which are completely and utterly false. Julieta worked as our nanny for seven years and was an important part of our family, someone both our children loved deeply. Julieta left in April, and we have not heard from her since then. We will make no further comment about this case."