Dutch Prosecutors Launch Criminal Investigation Against Uber For Flouting Ban

An anonymous reader writes Dutch prosecutors have announced that they are prosecuting taxi-hailing giant Uber for continuing to disregard last December's ban on the company offering its unlicensed UberPOP service in the Netherlands. The statement declares 'The company Uber is now a suspect...This means a preliminary examination will be started to collect evidence that Uber is providing illegal transportation on a commercial basis,'. Dutch police presented evidence to the prosecutors of UberPOP drivers in Amsterdam ignoring the ban, and at the time of writing the UberPOP service is still available via Uber's Amsterdam website [https://www.uber.com/cities/amsterdam]. Though Uber inspires new litigation on a weekly basis in the territories in which it is seeking to consolidate its services, this is the first time it has been the subject of a criminal prosecution.

Comments

Whats Worse, Uber Drivers or Taxi Drivers?

[linearZ]

I can't wait for the day they are all replaced by robots.

Re:Whats Worse, Uber Drivers or Taxi Drivers?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't wait for the day they are all replaced by robots.

All humans will be replaced by robots soon enough.

What's bad about Uber drivers?

[SuperKendall]

The Uber drivers I have used have all been great. Complaints I've seen have all been about Uber the company, not the drivers... the drivers are just normal people trying to earn a living by making use of what they have.

Most taxi drivers I have encountered on the other hand, have ranged from standoffish to incredibly rude and sometimes hostile, frequently lying about fares to get more money. Taxi drivers can be that way in most places because they have no competition, no reason to provide anything like good service at all - and it doesn't hurt that in a number of areas they are tied to organized crime.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[linearZ]

As a passenger, you may find them great. But then again, you probably don't have to deal with Uber SUV's right hooking you on a bike, or Lincoln town cars parked in the middle of the road, creating gridlock for blocks behind them. In my town, Uber drivers have become just as much as an entitled dipshits as Taxi drivers, maybe more so.

I will welcome our robot Uberlords.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Most taxi drivers I have encountered on the other hand, have ranged from standoffish to incredibly rude and sometimes hostile, frequently lying about fares to get more money.

Let me ask you, in which countries have you taken taxis?

I am American, but live in Germany. I have traveled on business to many different European countries. I have rode in taxis in England(Winchester,Southampton), the Netherlands (Delft), France (Nice, Paris), Belgium (Brussels), Greece (Samos), Switzerland (Zurich), Turkey(Istanbul), and just about every which where in Germany. I have never had a negative experience.

I am always polite to the driver, never condescending, and friendly. Guess what? The taxi driver always pays back in kind.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[linearZ]

It must be the US. As a lot, the Taxi drivers are nasty, no matter how respectful you are to them. I get it - getting paid close to minimum wage for driving around minimally maintained leased vehicle for hours in heavy traffic amongst poor/lost drivers, jay walking pedestrians, with sometimes difficult customers, and little accountability - that can likely turn the best of them into trolls. The Uber drivers attitude seems a bit better attitude towards their customers, and maybe that has to do with who owns the actual vehicle and the nature of the app. But for someone who most of the time isn't a customer of either, their crappy driving habits are about the same.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[burne]

The Uber drivers I have used have all been great.

Under Dutch law taxi drivers need a number of additional courses and successful completion of the certifications associated with them. In addition they are required to be screened for previous convictions pertaining to alchohol- or drug abuse, traffic violations, and inter-personal violence convictions.

There's no 'uber' in the Netherlands, just 'uberpop' which is an illegal taxi-driver with none of the training and none of the safe-guards 'normal' taxi drivers have to conform to. 'Uberpop' is promoting illegal taxi services.

Taxi drivers in the Netherlands behave themselves because the first DUI means they will never drive a taxi ever again. They don't beat up customers because they will never again, ever, work as a chauffeur, not even on a freight lorry. Run a number of red lights in a few years and you'll lose your VOG and with it your license to drive a taxi.

We used to have an America-styled mob company in every city. For instance: the TCA, Taxi Criminals Amsterdam, required large fees from its drivers, to protect them from 'damage' and to assign them rides. Heavy-handed law-enforcement did a lot of good. Uberpop seems to be determined to re-establish the New York-style cabbie from the late seventies.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[wvmarle]

Good for you, as long as everything goes perfectly as expected you'll be fine.

But then you're involved in an accident, get hurt, and suddenly you find out that the driver's insurance won't pay out because you're a paying passenger and he doesn't have insurance coverage for that. In case of official taxis, you won't have such an issue, guaranteed. There is a reason taxi licenses and so are in place in many parts of the world, and it's not to prevent competition. It's to protect customers, and if done correctly (admittedly often not done so) can enhance competition even.

Complaints are indeed primarily about the company, and its total lack of respect for the law - indeed they often actively and intentionally break the law (like in Amsterdam). Its drivers often make less than normal taxi drivers after deduction of all their cost. Just two of the common complaints against Uber.

Re:What's bad about Uber drivers?

[udippel]

If this is seriously what you want to know, here is the answer:
They work without the appropriate licence, their cars are not checked for fitness, and their insurance doesn't cover it, when they run you against a wall. isn't that quite enough?

I wish we did this in the US

[Anonymous Coward]

Being able to name a company as a suspect and file criminal charges against it would be amazing. Instead of just fining a company 0.001% of its annual net income, actually put some of these criminals into jail.

Foreclosed somebody's house "by accident" even though it was already paid off? That's felony theft of $250,000, treat the company like you would treat any individual who did that, no little $5,000 fine, someone needs to go to jail.

A corporate death penalty would be nice too for the big fuckups.

Re:I wish we did this in the US

[jklovanc]

They can and do.

Re:Haven't used it... but these laws are ridicules

[jklovanc]

We should not have to register vehicles, obtain drivers licenses, social security numbers, license plates, or submit to other forms of identification.

How do can you identify the owner of a vehicle and whether or not it has been stolen without registration? How do you verify that a person knows how to drive and the rules of the road without driver's licenses? How do you confirm that a person is who they say they are without a social security number? How do you identify a vehicle that has left the scene of an accident without a license plate?

It's not impossible to arrest someone for committing murder in a system without driver licenses or taxi licenses.

"Impossible" is a pretty high standard. There are also other lesser crimes that are much better dealt with from a license number rather than a name. Do you know how many Bob Smiths there are?

As a human being we should have a right to run a business without interference unless our actions are interfering with the rights of others.

How do you identify a person who has interfered with the rights of others and is no longer allowed to run the business?

You don't have a right to pollute the waters, but you do have a right to drive people without being licensed.

Where is this "right" written down? Who has agreed this is a "right"? Oh right, this would be your opinion. Too bad it is not the opinion of most people.

At the same time people have the right to refuse business with unlicensed drivers.

So every passenger would have to checks the driver's license, registration, insurance and inspection report before getting into a cab? That is why there are taxi licenses so the passenger can be sure that these checks have already been done.

Re:Haven't used it... but these laws are ridicules

[quantaman]

We should not have to register vehicles, obtain drivers licenses, social security numbers, license plates, or submit to other forms of identification. It's not impossible to arrest someone for committing murder in a system without driver licenses or taxi licenses. Such licensing doesn't stop or reduce the murder rate either. All it does is add costs to running a business.

Just last month I watched a truck rear end a minivan at a stop light then decide to make a run for it. In the process he forced a girl to jump out of the way (or get run over) then flew over a sidewalk around a blind corner (if anyone had been walking there he could have killed them).

Fortunately several people caught the license plate, he had a record already and with this latest infraction he'll likely be off the roads for a while. That most definitely could save lives.

you do have a right to drive people without being licensed. At the same time people have the right to refuse business with unlicensed drivers. Uber I imagine actually reduces risk to drivers and passengers alike by enabling individuals to select safer drivers.

What you don't have it the right to arbitrarily declare the laws we don't like to be unjust. There are times when there's real rights involved and civil disobedience is justified, I don't think a novel way of running a taxi service qualifies.

Should the law be changed to allow Uber-like services? Probably.

But that doesn't mean Uber can simply ignore the current laws.