Illegal internet download by guest

Sten1
Level 1
Berlin, Germany

Illegal internet download by guest

I had a guest illegally download a few minutes of a movie in my apartment in Berlin and now I have a law firm asking me to pay 700€ for this action. Any ideas, suggestions on what to do? I've tried to contact the tenant gut gotten no response. Thanks, Sten
4 Replies 4
Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

How awful for you, @Sten1. Here is link to another thread I had remembered reading: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Illegal-filesharing-what-to-do-step-by-step/td-p/241797

It contains a link to yet another thread on the topic. Lots of reading, but hope it helps! All the best.

Marcus0
Level 10
Berlin, DE

@Sten1hopefully you got through this ok.  Due to the harsh penalties in Germany you should have every guest sign an internet waiver on arrival.  To fix the above issue, unfortunately you need to take a lawyer to prove you were not there and that it was another person.  You need to provide the Airbnb booking details to prove this.  As the Airbnb guest has broken the law, you can also get Airbnb to act on your behalf, not that they will get the money for you, but it can lead to Airbnb suspending the guests airbnb account.  I have been through a few of these hoops here.

Dino20
Level 2
New York, NY

This has just happened to me as well.  What are you doing about this?  I just got fined 915€ by some shady law firm called Waldorf Frommer in Munich.   #WaldorfFrommer.Scammers#

Kali156
Level 2
São Paulo, Brazil

Hi Sten and Dino, does Airbnb refund you for that? I'm hosting my first Airbnb next month and I'm thinking about putting this on the house rules, then the guests have to agree on it before like Markus said