New York this month became the first major city to cap the number of cars that companies like Uber and Lyft are allowed to put on the road.
Just weeks earlier, the city council approved and New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, signed a law to crack down on Airbnb, requiring the company to hand over the names and addresses of all its hosts to an enforcement office.
With the one-two punch, New York has jumped to the forefront of a push in cities around the world to clamp down on the app-based companies that are now among the biggest players in the transportation and lodging markets.
“What we did should at least make it clear to other cities that commonsense regulation is possible,” said Corey Johnson, the city council speaker who made the tech company crackdowns among his first high-profile legislative pushes.
Each app presented its own set of challenges for city officials in New York – and each mounted a fierce but failed bid to stop the new rules.
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