Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain

An anonymous reader writes with word that a Spanish judge, after complaints from taxi associations that the competition Uber brings to the transportation market is unfair to existing firms' drivers, has ordered the company to cease operations in the country. From the BBC article: In his ruling on the temporary ban, the judge said Uber drivers didn't have official authorisation to drive their cars and was "unfair competition." The move follows a complaint by the Madrid Taxi Association. The Spanish ban comes just a day after Uber was blacklisted in the Indian capital Delhi. Drivers "lack the administrative authorisation to carry out the job, and the activity they carry out constitutes unfair competition," the Spanish court services said in a statement after the ruling. In Thailand, too. And stateside, the government of Portland, Oregon thinks Uber's a big enough threat to justify a sting operation. Business Insider's keeping score.

Comments

Uber is dying!

[BarbaraHudson]

It is now official. The BBC has confirmed: Uber is dying!

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered ridesharing community when IDC confirmed that Uber market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all ride-sharing services. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Uber has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Uber is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent "can you get a ride without being raped" test.

You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict Uber's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Uber faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Uber because Uber is dying. Things are looking very bad for Uber. As many of us are already aware, Uber continues to lose market share. Law suits flow like a river of blood.

Uber is the most endangered of all the ride-shares, having lost 93% of its legal battles with regulators. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time Uber drivers Ikant Drive and Noah Li Cense only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Uber is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

All major surveys show that Uber has steadily declined in market share. Uber is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Uber is to survive at all it will be among dilettante black car users. Uber continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Uber is dead.

Re:Greasing Palms.

[gstoddart]

I really wish we could stop sitting around bullshitting ourselves over the traditional cab companies, pretending those organizations didn't come to power or remain in power by using corruption.

I honestly don't know where this idiotic sentiment comes from.

Where I live, the cabs are regulated. In my memory, additional regulations have been imposed on them. They protested, but ultimately got told "too damned bad".

Yes, it's a very lucrative thing, and people pay huge amounts of money for the taxi plate.

But they're not some all powerful taxi cartel which secretly calls the shots. The taxi industry is not the fucking illuminati.

I think the entire premise (which as far as I can tell comes from Uber) of this stupid narrative of Uber being the underdogs fighting the big entrenched players is a crock of shit.

This is about a company who has decided they have an app and a business model which allows them to bypass existing regulations which are applied to all in that industry. They quite publicly are just a scheduling service for unlicensed cabs. That's it. They're not some noble entity fighting the good fight.

They're a company who has decide that magical elves and unicorn dust means they can pretend that laws don't apply to them. Based on what, I have yet to understand -- I've heard their spokespeople saying "well, we're not a taxi company, we're just a technology company, so the law doesn't apply". Really? How's that?

So, whatever this romanticized notion of Uber is, it seems like garbage to me. If you want to be a cab company, you are covered under the regulations of a cab company.

But if you think some sophistry and misdirection makes you not a cab company, you're either delusional, or just hoping to hoodwink enough people to sway public opinion.

So blah blah blah Uber and the evil all powerful taxi cab cartel.

Sorry, you're a commercial vehicle for hire, and covered under all applicable laws and regulations, whether you like it or not.