Ride-sharing app Uber’s argument that European governments are treating it unfairly has got a double boost, with Spain being asked by Brussels to explain its anti-Uber rulings and France appearing to concede that its restrictions on Uber may be invalid.
Uber’s European operations responded with glee on Thursday to news that the French government had informed the European Commission that it wants to build an “availability register” for normal French taxis, essentially mimicking the ride-sharing app. The French government said it wanted to help modernize the taxi industry and “optimise the monopoly.”
The company was also bolstered by the Commission’s decision to send the Spanish national government and the regional administrations of Catalonia and Valencia letters asking them to justify their bans on certain Uber services.
The two separate developments will have a significant impact on the way Uber operates in Europe.
What’s happening in France
The French government informed the European Commission on August 5 that it will collect information about the location of available taxis and allow potential customers to order them, creating a government-made, Uber-esque app for the taxi industry.
In explaining why it’s planning to do this, the government wrote: “The purpose of implementing the taxi availability register is to modernise the taxi driver profession and optimise the monopoly over cruising, extended to electronic cruising, in order to improve the meeting of supply and demand for taxis.”
France is one of the most hostile markets for Uber in Europe.
Last year, the government passed the Thévenoud law that limited Uber’s operations, forcing drivers to return to a base between fares, and banning intermediaries, geo-localization services, and calculating fares on the basis of time and distance traveled. None of these rules apply to taxis. UberPop was banned on the basis that Uber drivers weren’t properly licensed or insured.
“The legislation is designed to protect incumbent taxi operators from new digital services such as Uber, which is contrary to EU law,” Uber spokesperson Mark MacGann said.
The French government did not respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment.
Uber has taken issue both with the substance of the laws and the way they were implemented. The company has appealed several elements successfully, and the French constitutional court is currently deciding on the validity of the intermediary ban. Its decision is due before September 29.
But Uber also argues that the way the French introduced the law was in breach of the EU treaty.
EU countries have to notify the Commission of any technical regulation before it is adopted so that it can be monitored. If a country doesn’t to do this, the regulation is invalid.
Uber believes the fact that the French government notified the Commission of its draft taxi availability decree is an admission of sorts that the government erred by failing to give the Commission notice of the anti-Uber law.
“We have always believed that the French government should have notified the European Commission before passing the Thévenoud law,” says MacGann. “This news would seem to show that the French government now agrees.”
The deadline for France’s response to the Commission’s questionnaire on the Thévenoud law was last week. The Commission now has 10 weeks to decide what to do next. If it believes the French violated EU law, it can refer the matter to the European court of justice.
The European Commission did not respond to POLITICO’s questions before publishing.
What’s happening in Spain
Uber filed a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that Spain, as well as the local governments of Valencia and Catalonia were in breach of EU law in preventing the ride-sharing service from operating there.
The company was forced to pull its UberPop service out of Spain after a judge in a Madrid court ordered the company to stop all activities there in December. The ruling was based on the argument made by the Madrid Taxi Association, that Uber drivers had no authorization to operate in the country and therefore were acting anti-competitively.
“Outdated regulations are being used to protect a few established players from competition,” MacGann said. “As the European Commission has said, member states must ensure fairness, proportionality and non-discrimination for services like Uber.”
“The [French] legislation is designed to protect incumbent taxi operators from new digital services such as Uber, which is contrary to EU law” — Uber
While Uber has ignored such bans elsewhere, they weren’t able to continue operating in Spain because the judge ordered financial service companies to stop processing payments for Uber, and telecoms operators to block access to the app.
Prior to the ruling, Uber operated in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. After initially withdrawing all its operations from Spain, the company successfully petitioned to have the app unblocked and financial services resumed in order to launch a lunch delivery service called Uber Eats, currently operating in Barcelona. This has the effect of maintaining Uber’s presence (and driver base) in Spain, meaning the company is ready to resume ride-sharing operations as soon as possible.
Spain must respond to the Commission’s letter by October 15.
The Spanish ministries for the interior and transport did not return POLITICO’s requests for comments before publishing.
Antoine Sander contributed to this story.