San
Francisco
— TechNet, the national, bipartisan
network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives, today voiced its
opposition to the lawsuit filed against Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing
platform, by the San Francisco City Attorney on behalf of San Francisco
International Airport.

“This lawsuit represents a gross
misunderstanding of how sharing economy services work and the economic
opportunities they create,”
said Andrea Deveau, TechNet’s Vice President of State
Policy and Politics. “It will stifle innovation and
opportunities in the car-sharing market and hurt those who rely on these options
to conveniently and affordably get around.

“When government doesn’t
understand an innovative new product or service and refuses to adapt, it
resorts to frivolous, taxpayer-funded lawsuits like this that only hurt
economic growth and income opportunities for everyday Americans,”
Deveau added.

The
lawsuit, which benefits multi-billion-dollar
rental car companies, attempts to undermine California’s thriving sharing economy and create an uneven
playing field that favors rental car giants.

In 2010,
California’s legislature endorsed the “sharing economy” model for cars by
amending the California Insurance Code to recognize “personal vehicle sharing
programs” as a new kind of entity, separate and distinct from rental car
companies.