Uber faces having to withdraw ride hailing services in London, its
busiest European market, after local regulator Transport for London pulled the
company's licence for private hire cabs on Friday, a move Uber said it planned
to appeal.
The online ride-hailing pioneer said it still operates in 96 European
cities but has largely withdrawn its UberPOP service that relied on drivers
without commercial licences after court rulings against it in many
jurisdictions going back years.
Only in two cities across the region – Berlin and Athens – does Uber
offer rides with officially licensed taxi drivers which allow passengers to
hail UberTaxis as they pass on the street. In other cities, Uber's private hire
cabs must be ordered before a journey.
UberPOP remains available in a handful of cities in the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Norway, Poland and Switzerland. Uber plans in 2018 to introduce
ride-sharing and other services in Finland after the country recently cleared
the way for such services.
In most remaining cities, Uber offers a range of private hire services
using locally licensed drivers that include its mainstream service UberX, its
up-scale UberBlack cars and other niche services including UberVan, UberGreen
and UberExec.
The following are key legal challenges Uber has faced in Europe since
it began operating in 2012 in London and Paris.
European Union
A non-binding legal opinion issued in May 2017 by a legal adviser to
Europe's top court found Uber to be a transportation service, not just an
online app, exposing it to further local regulation across the region.
France
A French court fined Uber €800,000 (RM4bil) in June 2016 for running an
illegal taxi service with amateur drivers and slapped smaller fines on two
executives in the first such criminal case against it in Europe. Uber's
licensed private hire services remain popular in Paris.
Italy
A Rome court banned unlicensed ride-hailing services such as Uber in
April this year, but the ban was short-lived after the company appealed to a
higher court. Uber does not operate in Milan after a 2015 ruling against
UberPOP that the smartphone app represented "unfair competition" to
taxis.
Denmark
Uber said in March it planned to withdraw from Denmark after the
country passed a new taxi law that required ride-hailing services to install
fare meters and meet other requirements.
Hungary
Uber pulled out of Hungary in 2016 after the government passed a law –
in response to taxi operater protests – that would have blocked Internet access
to "illegal dispatcher services" like Uber's ride-hailing app.
Germany
A German regional court in Frankfurt in September 2014 ruled Uber
drivers must have commercial licenses to operate in Germany, leading the
company to pull out of operations in several German cities. It now operates
only a limited set of services in Berlin and Munich. — Reuters
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