Furious taxi drivers in France say the low-priced UberPop service is ruining their livelihood.
Advertisement
A law from October 2014 placed a ban on putting clients in touch with unregistered drivers.
President Francois Hollande, who is in Brussels trying to negotiate Greece’s economic rescue, also weighed in and ordered UberPOP’s activities to cease.
Legal approval would amount to recognition that despite complaints of unfair competition, app-based services like Uber and the smaller Cabify have become widely popular here, in part because much old-school cab service is awful.
Cazeneuve banned UberPop in the Paris region.
But the drivers vow lawsuits and further protests if they don’t like the outcome.
Police said 70 cars were damaged and seven police officials injured in the protests.
Uber thinks it’s the other way round and that it’s the government that is interfering with justice. It is valued in excess of $40 billion. French authorities are frustrated that Uber does not pay the same taxes and social charges as traditional taxis do. French taxis are on strike around the country, snarling traffic in major cities and slowing access to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport after weeks of rising and sometimes violent tensions over Uber. Taxi drivers burned tires and blocked roads in the capital, with one driver hospitalized after being run over.
“We are faced with permanent provocation (from Uber) to which there can only be one response: total firmness in the systematic seizure of offending vehicles”, G7 taxi firm head Serge Metz told BFM TV. Get your a** to the airport. “I’m safer in Baghdad“.
Contrast that with the fresh-smelling sedan driven by Cesar Hernandez, a clean-cut Uber driver who opens the door for customers and uses the polite “usted” form of address.
Advertisement
The government argues the app’s managers are breaking the law. That, officials said, would need a decision by the courts. Consultations were also held with Uber when the decree was being prepared, he added.
