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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

There's nothing else Uber could have done. If they withdrew from Germany, even only temporarily, it'd be seen as a way to restrict Uber's business in every country they operate in. It'd pretty much be an admission that they don't know if they're operating legally.

While the German government are threatening to fine drivers Uber are still ok. If the government actually fines someone successfully, I imagine Uber will be in big trouble.

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> There's nothing else Uber could have done.

How about... complying with the regulation? I.e. requiring their drivers buy commercial insurance?

In any case, I love this development. I can't wait either an US company getting fined (or the CEO jailed) for not understanding EU culture, or Germany losing face when trying to beat a US company into submission.

The company in question (Uber B.V.) is in the Netherlands. Because Uber GmbH (in Germany) doesn't have the balls to run this scheme themselves - that would incur a _real_ risk to have their director jailed for 6 months.

I'm pretty sure a German court can have someone in Netherlands jailed...

It's hardly that linear. See e.g. Klaas Carel Faber.

When Uber re-launched quasi-legally in Austin, TX, some drivers there told me Uber promised to pay any fines they incurred. Whether the German government fines Uber and/or the drivers, maybe they're just hoping to throw money at the problem.

If they do I'll hail Uber cars all day and report. It's 250k a pop, let's see how fast we can transfer 16B USD to germanys funds :)

With any kind of attempt at real enforcement, they can't pay. It's a quarter-million euros a pop. If they do a very conservative 10,000 rides in Germany this week, that's 2.5 billion euros.

The injunction is against the company. Drivers cannot be fined on this basis (but certainly on regulator grounds, that's a different issue altogether)

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