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Comment by cryptoz | Hacker News Reader

> In a statement on Monday, Uber said it would "continue to offer UberPop", despite the threat of a fine of up to €100,00 for itself, and one of up to €40,000 for drivers.

Classic Uber.

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To be fair,I'd say that Uber doesn't even have (real) offices in most countries where it operates,therefore making it almost impossible to enforce any court decision against it.It's a bit like Airbnb.

Unless one makes the app illegal or block Uber website(which I am against),there is not much the justice can do.

On the other hand,just like with Airbnb,for the hosts and drivers,it's another story...

I would also add that,if a country really want to kick out these "sharing economy" services,they need to fine the service provider as well as the client.Not that I agree with it,just that,as long as there are clients willing to pay for it,with little risk,there will be hosts and drivers willing to take the risk to be fined.

"there is not much the justice can do."

It would be pretty east to shut down. Just give a few cops some phones have them start hailing Ubers and handing out tickets with heavy fines to drivers. Rinse and repeat until word gets around. Uber might still be operating but unless they are going to pay the tickets they will soon be out of drivers.

I was thinking the same thing.

As a driver, (and considering Uber's history and questionable business practices) no way I'd want to get stuck with a 40K euro fine to pay on my own.

That's pretty much what happened in Ottawa.

That's assuming that the penalties are enforceable upon the drivers. I wouldn't be surprised to see the laws written exactly the opposite, to protect the drivers from bad actions of the employer.

I wonder if a little Internet censorship might be a possible means of enforcement. Ask the court to order mobile ISPs to block Uber.

Easy to get around, unless they also block the app stores. All Uber has to do is push an update pointing to new URLs, perhaps a long list of them, perhaps including very popular CDNs, and the block is over. Further blocking of said URL list will cause major problems for everyone, and will be the last time anyone tries Internet censorship... for a few days.

Or get an injunction against Apple and Google to stop distributing the apps.

Uber is so cute, outlaws pretending to be a corporation. How long before the executives are jailed or shot?

Uber doesn't fear a fine for its drivers, since the drivers take the hit and not the company.

Nobody is forcing the drivers to drive, though.

Although according to the article it is risking a €100,000 fine on top of €40,000 fine given to the driver. That could rack up pretty quickly if it were on a per-violation basis.

Uber has paid fines on behalf of the drivers in the past in US cities as long as they were obeying all other laws (seat belts, max occupancy, etc).

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