Setback for Uber as European court advised to treat it as transport firm
A top European Union Court of Justice advocate says the taxi-hailing company is ‘not merely a digital intermediary
Brussels/Luxembourg — Uber faces the biggest challenge yet to its European roll-out after the region’s top court was advised to rule that the US ride-hailing firm is actually a transport service not an app. Although the opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (ECJ) advocate General Maciej Szpunar is non-binding, its judges usually follow such advice and are likely to reach a final ruling in the landmark case in the coming months. If the ECJ does rule that Uber is a transport service, this is likely to have an impact on the Silicon Valley firm’s operations in Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, and Finland where it still runs UberPOP, using amateur drivers to pick up riders. The ECJ’s final ruling cannot be appealed by Uber, the world’s most valuable venture-backed company, which is also struggling with a wave of executive departures and criticism of its work culture. The case was brought by Barcelona taxi drivers who argued that UberPOP engaged in unfair competition by ...
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