Uber Having A Tough Week Overseas: France And South Korea Crack Down
from the can't-get-too-popular dept
It's been pretty clear for a while that Uber, the super popular (if sometimes controversial) car-hailing service, has often courted regulatory conflict as a sort of marketing strategy. In cities around the globe, often the best way to get the public to realize that Uber was a convenient alternative to dreaded taxis was to have the local taxi commission/transportation board/whatever announce that whatever the company was doing was illegal. This would cue a blog post or email from the company, and thousands of (previously) happy but (now) annoyed Uber users to flood the government with complaints. Frequently, this would lead to the bureaucrats backing down quickly, and Uber getting a ton of "free" publicity. However, it appears that some places are simply ratcheting up the legal attacks on the company.Last year, we noted that South Korea was threatening to put Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in jail for offering an "illegal" taxi service, and it appears that the country isn't backing down. Kalanick and dozens of others (not just from Uber) have now been charged with operating an "illegal taxi ring" in South Korea. This round includes additional charges against Kalanick, who has wisely been staying out of South Korea for the time being, though the country plans to seek a warrant to have him arrested.
"We plan to summon Kalanick soon and check the transaction details of overseas bank accounts to conduct further investigation into those involved in the case," a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If Kalanick continues to disobey the summons, we plan to seek an arrest warrant against him."Meanwhile, over in France, the police have raided Uber's offices:
French police raided Uber's office in Paris this week, as part of an investigation into its controversial UberPop service. According to French media reports, 25 officers raided Uber's headquarters for six hours on Monday, seizing emails, documents, and smartphones used by Uber drivers.Again, whether or not you approve of some of Uber's marketing practices (or its privacy or pricing policies), that shouldn't take away from the simple fact that it has actually created a tremendously useful service, enabling easier and often cheaper transportation for many people in a variety of urban areas. It's a powerful service, and it's difficult to see these recent legal attacks as anything more than blatant protectionism of existing taxi cartels that artificially keep prices high while providing generally sub-par service.
The company's low-cost UberPop service has been at the center of ongoing controversy in France, where authorities deemed it illegal under a new law that went into effect on January 1st. The law requires all chauffeurs to be licensed and insured — conditions that, according to French authorities, UberPop does not meet. Uber insists that the service is legal under French law, and has filed appeals with the European Commission. UberPop, which connects clients with non-professional drivers, remains available in France, though some 250 chauffeurs have been fined since the beginning of the year, according to FranceInfo.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: car hailing, france, ride haling, ride sharing, south korea, taxis, travis kalanick
Companies: uber
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Yes, Uber has created a useful service
http://pando.com/2012/10/31/assholes-shrug/
As NY floods, "Robin Hood" Uber robs from the rich and -- Nope, that's about it
http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are-pushing-drivers-into-su-1649936785
Uber and Its Shady Partners Are Pushing Drivers into Subprime Loans
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/12/uber-sorry-hiking-fares-amid-sydney-siege-20 141224124625887915.html
Uber sorry for hiking fares amid Sydney siege
http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/french-uber-bird-hunting-promotion-pairs-lyon-riders-with -a
Sexist French Uber Promotion Pairs Riders With "Hot Chick" Drivers
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/19/we-are-watching-too/?ncid=rss
Uber's God View Shows The Privacy Wars Are Revving Up
http://www.cnet.com/news/god-view-under-spotlight-as-uber-investigation-intensifies/#ftag=CAD590a5 1e
Uber's "God View" under scrutiny as spotlight intensifies on its practices
http://www.gironsec.com/blog/2014/11/what-the-hell-uber-uncool-bro/
What the hell Uber? Uncool bro.
http://www.gizmag.com/uber-app-malware-android/34962/
Uber's Android app caught reporting data back without permission
http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-digging-up-dirt-on-journalists
Ube r Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/uber-is-investigating-its-top-new-york-executive-fo r-privacy
"God View" Uber Investigates Its Top New York Executive For Privacy Violations
https://www.wired.com/2015/01/uber-privacy-woes-cautionary-tale/
Uber's Privacy Woes Should Serve As a Cautionary Tale for All Companies
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Uber is a new exploiter of poor and unemployed.
It's a particularly vile kind of capitalism, as tricks the poor into putting up the capital besides doing the work: drivers pay for vehicle, insurance, and all else, then hands Uber (as in ubermensch) a good chunk.
This item endorsing a current mode of vulture capitalism is kind of surprising after the "podcast" for a guaranteed basic income.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Uber is a new exploiter of poor and unemployed.
What exactly is vile about that?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Uber is a new exploiter of poor and unemployed.
Insurance (or lack thereof) is one of them, where the driver and the customer are liable because they've made a commercial transaction, which their regular insurance doesn't handle.
Then there's other things like background checks on drivers, loopholes to avoid liability, lack of inspection and required maintenance for vehicles.
And a lot more that are dependent on regions and laws.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of regulations and laws which are problematic, depending on where you are. But there are also a shit ton that exist solely to create business accountability and help to protect the consumer, which Uber continuously skirt arund.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Uber is a new exploiter of poor and unemployed.
And fyi every single UberX ride I've taken has been in a much better maintained car than literally any of the yellow cabs I've been in. I'm not just talking averages, I'm talking about the distributions being completely disjoint. Obviously just a small sample here, but from where I sit your points make zero sense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Uber is a new exploiter of poor and unemployed.
This practice isn't limited to Uber & co. Check you local want ads sometime and you'll see posts that require the employee to provide and use their own vehicle. Delivery drivers and tradespeople are the two most often seen, but there are others.
And that won't absolve the employer from liability. I can't find the link but there was a case years ago where an employer was held liable for an off-duty accident simply because the employee was required to provide a vehicle as a condition of employment.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wait a second...
So you can't drive a friend to work and have him pay you for gas? Seriously? That... seems unenforceable?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait a second...
That's the point. They write laws which can't be reliably enforced or interpreted so that everyone is guilty of something. Those who the people in power don't like can always be charged with something, and those that they do like are never charged on the basis that it would be wasteful to go after everyone who breaks the law.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Wait a second...
They're rules that can't be enforced or interpreted correctly every time as generally everyone is guilty of something. This can range from something as trivial as theft of 25 dollars to something serious as murder.
If you don't like someone who stole 25 dollars you can give them a longer sentence than murder.
Proof? Just look at copyright.
Why is this surprising?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
...can't drive a friend to work?
To provide equivalent service for money, you're required to obtain a taxi permit (Personenbeförderungsschein) which entails a doctor's certificate attesting to your physical and mental fitness, and a query into your criminal record. It'll cost you 200-300 € the first time, and about 100 € every five years of permit extension.
As as driver for Uber, you'd use your own car for which you already have insurance, but this doesn't cover commercial use. You're supposed (and contractually required by Uber) to tell your insurer and renegotiate the rate. He retains the right to reject you, and I'm pretty sure the costs will go up. (Which is why the average Uber driver may easily 'forget' and then be faced with a 5000 € fine plus additional charges and termination of his insurance contract.)
This is what it takes to legally drive for Uber in Germany... if Uber itself stays legal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
German court bans Uber's ridesharing service
"Uber also has hit trouble in the Netherlands, Spain and France, which has effectively banned its service."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Governments aren't this particular guy you don't like
Your ideology that thinks of government as this singular thing is so far removed from reality, it's pernicious.
When people representing a public university (that's a type of government institution even) say they care about innovation or a fire dept (government!) says they cares about public safety or a parks dept says they care about recreational opportunities, it's not bullshit just because some executive in another part of government has other views.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Governments aren't this particular guy you don't like
Or have I missed the part where it's only a small, insignificant percentage of politicians who try to kill off any innovation that's the least bit disruptive, while the other 99% good politicians protect and nurture it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
(‽)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Second, if they bothered obeying local laws instead of ignoring them and crying wold, this wouldn't have happened.
But what's the saying? It's easier to ask for forgiveness later than permission first? Par for Uber.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]