EU Court rules in favour of Spanish taxi drivers over Uber case

Barcelona’s taxi drivers protested against Uber in November, and now their case has been won across the entire EU.

Uber, the increasingly controversial smartphone-based ‘ride-sharing’ app was last week officially deemed a transportation service by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg – a ruling that will bring cheers to Barcelona’s taxi drivers this Christmas.

The case was brought to the EU by the Taxi Drivers’ Association of Barcelona, which claimed that Uber’s service is essentially a taxi service in all-but name, and thus should be subject to the same rules and regulations that dictate taxi firms…

Uber has long straddled the divide between being seen as a bonafide transportation company and a peer-to-peer platform to help people get from A to B, with the Silicon Valley-based firm seemingly able to move into European cities at will and begin competing with the local taxi services at will.

The issue many Uber opponents repeatedly raise is that, unlike registered taxi firms, Uber drivers have to meet very low standards of safety and service, which essentially means that the platform has been able to evade costly regulation requirements that involve training and licensing.

While Uber drivers and their vehicles certainly are subject to some level of screening, it is far below the standard required of ‘traditional’ taxi drivers, the Barcelona association argued.

Their calls for Uber to be subject to similar measures were met by the ECJ, which stated on Wednesday that “the service provided by Uber connecting individuals with non-professional drivers is covered by services in the field of transport. Member states can therefore regulate the conditions for providing that service.”

What this means is that cities in the EU that Uber currently operates in can now decide how to treat the platform. Uber was quick to state that the ruling would make little difference in practice, but governments in Spain, France and the UK have in the past made it difficult for the service to operate fully without incurring the wrath of the courts.

Uber’s UberX service – which is like a premium taxi service – operates in limited parts of Spain and generally offers customers the guarantee that their drivers have been professionally trained. Such a service is more expensive and generally on a par with taxi prices, and thus this could prove to be the way forward for Uber in Spain in the future.