Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Saturday July 04 2015, @12:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the driven-away dept.

Ride-sharing service Uber has exited the French market following taxi driver protests, a ban by the French interior minister, and the arrest of two managers:

Following a week of increasingly violent clashes with traditional taxi drivers, the San Francisco-based company announced that its popular Uberpop service would be suspended from 8pm tonight and would no longer appear on users' app lists.

'In recent weeks intimidation and violent aggression by an out-of-control minority, where drivers and users of Uberpop were ambushed, has increased in France. Uber does not want to put drivers or passengers at risk, so for the sake of peace has decided to suspend Uberpop,' said the company in a statement. However, the service is in fact illegal in France. Last week, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, general manager for Western Europe, and Thibaud Simphal, general manager of Uber France, were arrested. They will have their day in court in September.

Uber said it hoped to be back up and running as soon as possible. It thanked the "thousands of men and women from Lille to Marseille, via Paris, Bordeaux or Lyon who participated with enthusiasm in the urban transport revolution".


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:04PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday July 04 2015, @09:04PM (#205111)

    You're not making any sense at all with your diatribe and analogy.

    Uber isn't taking away a whole city and kicking people out, they're providing a useful service which French people actually want. If French people didn't want it, they wouldn't use the service, and the taxi drivers would have nothing to complain about. The only people being hurt by Uber are the taxi drivers, which isn't any different than the buggy whip makers and sellers being forced out of business by the automobile 100+ years ago. Cry me a river.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2