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The FTC wants your feedback on companies like Airbnb and Uber

The FTC wants your feedback on companies like Airbnb and Uber

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The Federal Trade Commission is holding a workshop to discuss the sharing economy, made up by companies like Airbnb and Uber, and it wants to know what you think about your rights as a consumer. The workshop will discuss "competition, consumer protection, and economic issues" in the sharing economy, and talk about whether current regulations can handle an industry that the FTC believes will generate as much as $110 billion a year in the near future.

You can submit your thoughts on the sharing economy to the FTC until May 26th

"We are seeing a dramatic growth in products and services that are built on peer-to-peer platforms, such as ride-sharing and property rentals, as more entrepreneurs harness the power of technology to reach more consumers," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement. "The resulting business models have great potential to benefit our economy and consumers. Through our workshop, we want to better understand the competitive impact of these new business models, as well as their interactions with existing regulatory frameworks."

But before the workshop begins on June 9th, the FTC would like to hear your thoughts on questions it has deemed relevant to the sharing economy. Do you think companies like Uber or Lyft should be responsible for any injuries sustained while riding in one of their cars? How reliable is Airbnb's rating system, and is it susceptible to bias? Should your score on one sharing platform affect another? You can submit all of your thoughts on the sharing economy to the FTC until May 26th right here.