by Doug Allen
Richard Nieva sees the insurance industry as the biggest threat to the increasingly popular “sharing economy”:
Airbnb ran into issues when some hosts reported guests ransacking and stealing of their property. And Uber, the black car taxi service — the most successful of auto-related sharing companies — made headlines recently when the company’s contracted drivers staged a protest in San Francisco, partly over outrage that Uber doesn’t own a commercial insurance policy, meaning the drivers themselves are liable for any accidents they might get into.
As the sharing economy burrows its way into people’s everyday lives – or at least out from the realm of absurdity – there’s been a familiar refrain echoing throughout the blogosphere and traditional press: City hall has been getting in the way. Indeed, in many cases, government regulators have taken a hard line against the sharing economy companies. … But even with the long laundry list of attacks by city hall, the trickiest obstacle for sharing economy companies – particularly in the car-sharing space – is the arms length relationship they have with the insurance industry. Early adopters — call them the Napster generation — are happy to break the law within reason. Putting their savings at risk by lending an asset that insurance won’t cover (up to a certain point) may be another matter.
