Uber Technologies will suspend its UberPOP ride-hailing service in France, the U.S. company said on Friday, after it faced sometimes-violent protests and local authorities denounced it as an illegal taxi service.
After fierce protests last week by licensed French taxi drivers who argue it threatens their livelihood with unfair competition, France took two executives from California-based Uber into custody and said they will face trial in September.
France’s legal clampdown was the latest setback for Uber in Europe. An Italian court in May banned unlicensed car-sharing services, two months after a German court issued a similar ban and imposed stiff fines for violations of local transport laws.
Taxi drivers in France pay income tax and welfare charges and, depending on their location, sometimes have to pay hundreds of thousands of euros for an operating license. They argue they face unfair competition from unlicensed drivers who have no such costs and so can undercut them on price. A final ruling on UberPOP’s legality in France is due around September.
For its part, Uber argues it is offering a much-needed service that complements licensed taxis and is offering a sideline income for some 10,000 people in France, (it's also offering unlicensed travel from drivers breaking the law)
Didier Hogrel, president of France’s national taxi federation, told BFMTV he was ready to discuss ways to promote parallel services such as licensed chauffeur-driven limousines, which currently face heavy restrictions in France.
But of on-line apps like UberPOP he said: “We won’t be happy until all these illegal applications are banned.”
Meanwhile In London
It has been alleged that Uber London Ltd, has stopped recruiting new drivers for its Uber Exec service after driver complained that there was just not enough work to keep expanding the fleet
Also this week, a video appeared on social media showing Uber's virtual satellite office at the Twickenham festival. Every satellite office requires a license variation, but it is not known if Uber had applied. Taxi Leaks has made an FOI request to ask TfL if such a licence variation was issued on this occasion.
9 comments:
Jim I asked tfltph 2 months ago to get this sorted out and they said
they were waiting for enforcement to come back to them ! and then a week ago before this event
took place I asked again was tfltph going to stop this and again I was told that TPH we're waiting for enforcement
to get back to them and they would chase it up . The rest is History .
I have asked if they will be allowing Uber to set up a tent for the rugby World Cup !! will let you know what they say .
Uber will not be banned ,TFL will invent a new licence for the drivers so they can accept bookings on their phones in their cars, it will cost £300 a year or so for every car on the uber platform, follow the money
In the Standard on Friday Joe Murphy the political editor got quotes from Boris and Steve Hilton (Cameron's advisor) regarding companies that do not pay minimum wage in London .Both said it is morally wrong if you do not pay minimum wage,perhaps Steve Hilton should have a word with his partner (Rachael Whetstone) who is on uber board, a company that wants a driver ( I use the word lightly) on every street corner of London,a company regestered in Holland that does a Starbucks with its Tax liability,a company that it's drivers claim Tax credits to top up its wages! I think the pressure is on and they have realised that they have layed down with dogs and got fleas.I suspect a few people are getting ready to blame everyone but themselves when the Bryn Phillips sms hits the fan.
Do you honestly think these drivers don't earn minimum wage but can run a 50k merc please learn from the past stop pretending these drivers are creaming it at the moment where do you think your work has gone . An open question to all of us gb yb if you could earn more money working for uber would you do it
All drivers on uber are self employed , so uber don't have to Pay minimum wage.
Uber would only pay it if they employed the drivers directly.
In California, the state legislator has deemed Uber drivers as employees .
It's only a matter of time before the Europian market does the same thing.
Uber's business model will then collapse completely
Who knows how much tax credits are being paid?? Numbers are needed otherwise we are just making allegations. The uber drivers are all self employed, they use their own vehicles and have no fixed shifts or working sites so HMRC are not interested on that front. I am afraid that although I was encouraged by the phone in on LBC and very impressed with each of the leaders of our trade groups, who finally seem to be co-ordinating their positions, no matter how strong our arguments if no bastard is listening it's all to no avail. The Establishment are'nt too interested in our plight so we have to make them interested. It's an extreme analogy but the IRA didn't stop their attacks while they were negotiating the peace settlement, and we should be shutting this great city of ours down once a week till somebody does listen. The taxi drivers in Glasgow, Liverpool and the other cities that Uber operate in should be asked for their support too then whichever nobody organised the obvious newd blackout on the Palestra demo won't get their way. It's time to step the action up not postpone it
Blinding post Colin !
Semtex.
Let's all demo at the same time at airports all over the country now if not the whole world,let's put it together through social media,come on brothers in arms and all that !!!
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