Heritage Foundation Sues Airbnb in Continuing Battle Against Politicized Corporations

It’s well-documented that corporate America in recent years took a hard left turn, and The Heritage Foundation continues to battle back and depoliticize business. Heritage filed a lawsuit against Airbnb earlier this month after the company excluded a Heritage proposal from its annual shareholder meeting. 

Heritage, an Airbnb shareholder, filed its proposal for the housing rental giant to reject politicized, antisemitic activist demands to divest from vendors in locations like Israel. Unfortunately, corporate America—even before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel—started to fall captive to the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

This lawsuit comes after a series of efforts in recent years by Heritage and other groups, including education, publicity, and pressure campaigns, to highlight the risks corporations face when ideology overtakes accountability.

Heritage reports in its filing that it followed all requirements and time stipulations for submitting its shareholder proposal. Airbnb claims it never received the shareholder proposal packet, despite Heritage receiving a FedEx delivery receipt with the signature of an Airbnb employee confirming delivery. Airbnb refuses all knowledge of the proposal and—shockingly—even suggested FedEx forged the signature of its own employee who confirmed delivery. 

Heritage filed the lawsuit together with American Conservative Values ETF, another shareholder of Airbnb, which also submitted a proposal that Airbnb excluded. Heritage is represented by Boyden Gray and American Conservative Values ETF is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom.  

“Airbnb broke the law—plain and simple. [Securities and Exchange Commission] rules require companies to notify shareholders and allow a response if a proposal is excluded,” Andrew Olivastro, chief advancement officer at The Heritage Foundation, said in a statement. “Airbnb ignored those rules and ignored the law. It makes you wonder what other legal corners Airbnb may have cut. Heritage and ADF are suing to make one thing clear: shareholder rights aren’t subject to mood or politics—they’re protected by law.” 

Under SEC regulations, Airbnb is required to include proposals in its materials for its annual shareholder meeting—unless the company notifies those submitting the proposals that the materials will be excluded, provides reasons for its exclusion, and gives filing shareholders a chance to respond. Airbnb did not notify Heritage of its proposal’s exclusion or allow Heritage to take any action. Airbnb did, however, include a proposal from Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, a liberal-leaning fund that openly supports initiatives like the environmental, social, and governance scorecard for “socially conscious” investing. This appears to be blatant viewpoint discrimination by Airbnb. 

The December proposal submitted by Heritage highlighted the fact that Airbnb caved to antisemitic political demands in the past—including its announcement in 2018 to remove 200 “Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank,” noting strong views of “historic and intense disputes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank” from those who “believe companies should not profit on lands where people have been displaced.” While Airbnb reversed its decision a year later, the precedent for caving to political demands had been set.   

When the exclusion of the proposals was brought to Airbnb’s attention in April, the company refused to include it in materials for its June meeting, nor would the company agree to include the proposal in materials for the 2026 meeting.  

Heritage works closely with the State Financial Officers Foundation, where I previously served as an economic research fellow. Heritage awarded Innovation Prizes to the foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, and others, including the Independent Women’s Forum, to fight woke capitalism.

The State Financial Officers Foundation is a coalition of 28 state financial leaders. During the Biden administration, the group marshaled its market muscle—roughly $3 trillion in public assets under management—to force banks and other financial institutions to quit targeting conservatives and imposing far-left ideologies on taxpayers. 

The goal of these efforts is to restore objectivity and neutrality to business.

By calling for transparency and fairness, Heritage and its partners are rallying Americans to demand that businesses prioritize merit, ethics and unity over divisive, politicized agendas. Now it’s time for the court of law to enact justice toward this end.

Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst for the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women’s Forum.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

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