> The court said in its ruling that UberPOP had caused a "durable disruption" of the transport sector, provoking violent protests by taxi drivers that had disturbed public order.
Fine Uber because taxi drivers are violent? makes sense.
Fine Uber because taxi drivers are violent? makes sense.
Not saying it's right that the industry is regulated, and it's certainly not right that the French Taxi drivers resorted to violence, but if you want to operate in a country, you have to abide by their rules, it's called the cost of doing business.
Now, there's nothing to stop them lobbying for change of course.
Mind you, it's not as bad as, say, the teachers in Mexico who can sell their job to someone else, but... it has an impact on the economy, and it's a major reason youth unemployment is so high (and a contributing factor to why immigrant communities can't integrate, which is a contributing factor to the security situation over there...)
> The app connects 12,000 professional drivers with 1.5 million clients.
Ignoring the law in hope of capturing the market before they get banned is the very modus operandi of Uber. They do this all the time, everywhere.
So far..
There can be no justice when laws are not just.
Unless US tech companies with billions of funding are above it, they still have to respect it.
Uber is still allowed in France, only UberPop is forbidden like in a lot of european countries and rightly so.
It is understandable that execs are fined or even jailed for breaking business licensing regulations. It is not understandable that people do actual, real violence and that is shrugged off because it's political.