A court has loosened French transportation regulations by overturning a ban on a key feature used by the Uber ridesharing app:
Car-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc. won a loosening of France's strict transport rules Wednesday when a court overturned a decree banning car services from showing the locations of available vehicles, a well-known feature of Uber's app.
France's Conseil d'Etat, the country's highest administrative court, struck down the part of a government decree that banned the showing of locations of available cars. The court said providing the locations represents an "information society service." Under European Union law, countries must notify the EU before regulating such services.
Two Uber managers were arrested in Paris back in June.
Previously: French Taxi Drivers Vandalize France to Protest Uber
Uber Leaves France
Related Stories
French taxi drivers are the latest to protest the entry of Uber into their protected market. Their protests feature vandalism and blocking roads. From the AP story:
French taxi drivers pulled out the throttle in an all-out confrontation with the ultra-cheap Uber car service Thursday, smashing livery cars, setting tires ablaze and blocking traffic during a nationwide strike that caught tourists and celebrities alike in the mayhem.
[...] Taxi drivers justified their rage, saying Uber's lowest-cost service UberPop was ruining their livihoods.[sic]
[...] Anger seethed across France, with riot police chasing strikers from Paris' ring road, where protesters torched tires and swarmed onto exit ramps during rush hour on the busy artery that leads to Charles de Gaulle airport. In Toulouse in the southwest, angry taxi drivers dumped flour onto UberPop cars, tires were burned in Nantes in the west, and in Lyon, in the southeast, roads were blocked.
Compare this to Uber protests in London.
Vive le monopole!
Original Submission
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".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 10 2016, @01:13PM
What the heck is a "information society service"? I think the judges used Uber in the past and that may have swayed them to allow it.
How long until the government decides that in this information society service, it is entitled to your location at all times? Oh wait, that's already happened, and we did it to ourselves. We tagged ourselves and can be followed 24/7/365[.25]. We just never noticed because we're not being given bright-pink overalls.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday March 10 2016, @07:13PM
What the heck is a "information society service"?
Hey, this is Europe, they have to tax and regulate every little thing [historyhouse.co.uk].
*If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet*
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 11 2016, @04:50AM
'Cos you're the taxman!
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Thursday March 10 2016, @09:49PM
"The Regulations refer to an "information society service". This is defined as "any service normally provided for remuneration at a distance, by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, at the individual request of a recipient of the service".
This covers more than just e-commerce businesses. In 2002, the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (which became the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2009) said that, in its view, it is not restricted to buying and selling online."
http://www.out-law.com/page-431 [out-law.com]
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32000L0031 [europa.eu] (see paragraph 17)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday March 10 2016, @04:44PM
Meanwhile here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, our elected idiots are trying to ban Uber from airport pickups, add unnecessary license requirements, and ban surge pricing during weather emergencies. [bostonherald.com] I don't know who is demanding these changes other than the government monopoly - taxi medallion owners.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 10 2016, @05:13PM
Are you complaining that the government-backed monopoly is asking for laws to reject unregulated competition?
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday March 10 2016, @05:38PM
It is only natural that they would want to protect their interests. My concern is that instead of loosening the regulations and creating an open market, our elected idiots are trying to add more regulations. We're not heading in the right direction.
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