UberPOP service suspended in France to protect drivers

[midian182]

Uber has announced it has suspended UberPOP in France until further notice. The move follows a week that saw two of Uber's top executives in the country detained by police and violent protests against the service.

One of the arrested executives, French director Thibaud Simphal, announced the news in an interview with Le Monde saying that the UberPOP service will no longer operate as of July 3 at 8PM. He added that the move was primarily to assure the safety of Uber drivers.

Animosity between French taxi drivers and Uber has been growing steadily in recent months, culminating in last week's violent protests. The anger stems from Uber not facing the same steep licensing fees as French cab drivers. Taxi unions claim this gives the San Francisco-based company an unfair competitve advantage.

In January, a change in French law effectively banned UberPOP in France, but the service was allowed to continue after a Paris appeals court declined to rule on its legality in March. A constitutional court is expected to issue a final decision on UberPOP's legal status in September. The company has said it would wait for the court's decision before it reinstated or permanently dropped the service.

Uber gave this statement: "We wish to thank the thousands of women and admirable men who, from Lille to Marseille via Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon, have enthusiastically participated in this revolution in urban transport by transporting you daily. All were able to remain calm despite the lies, calumny and brutality."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/61232-uberpop-service-suspended-france-protect-drivers.html

 

[Greg S]

If it's so unfair because of the union instated rules, why does nobody blame the people who are making the services cost so much more in the first place? Solution: just have everybody dump the union and become uber drivers. More money for everybody except the customers and the union admin people who just leech off of society's actual working employees.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Solution: just have everybody dump the union and become uber drivers.

(y) However people tend to be loyal and wouldn't jump ship, unless they get a better offer. Do Uber drivers get a better deal than Taxi drivers?

 

[Kibaruk]

This is the problem with people nowadays, they get violent vandalize and riot and instead of them becoming part of the solution they create a new problem, and force everyone else to do something they were not suposed to do.

 

[risc32]

You have capitalism and then you have this.... you know in france when the milk producers don't think they are getting enough money for their product, the government causes shortages. how? they actually spread it over fields. that's right starving kids the world over, to bad for you. Go Socialism and protectism! we (usa) aren't there yet, but many are trying. I wouldn't be surprised if hidden away in my taxes I'm paying for stuff that has been out of fashion for a 100 yrs, like maintenance for horse draw buggys, cause those guys need there money, cars be damned.

 

[treetops]

Corp puppets run the world not much gets done for the people

 

[Tanstar]

You have capitalism and then you have this.... you know in france when the milk producers don't think they are getting enough money for their product, the government causes shortages. how? they actually spread it over fields. that's right starving kids the world over, to bad for you. Go Socialism and protectism! we (usa) aren't there yet, but many are trying. I wouldn't be surprised if hidden away in my taxes I'm paying for stuff that has been out of fashion for a 100 yrs, like maintenance for horse draw buggys, cause those guys need there money, cars be damned.

The U.S. Dept of Agriculture pays for thousands (millions?) of acres to not be used yearly to keep our produce prices up.