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Uber France Leaders Arrested For Running Illegal Taxi Company
An anonymous reader writes: Two Uber executives were arrested by French authorities for running an illegal taxi company and concealing illegal documents. This is not the first time Uber has run into trouble in France. Recently, taxi drivers started a nation-wide protest, blocking access to Roissy airport and the nation's interior minister issued a ban on UberPop. A statement from an Uber spokesperson to TechCrunch reads: "Our CEO for France and General Manager for Western Europe were invited to a police hearing this afternoon; following this interview, they were taken into custody. We are always available to answer all the questions on our service, and available to the authorities to solve any problem that could come up. Talks are in progress. In the meantime, we keep working in order to make sure that both our customers and drivers are safe following last week’s turmoils."
Maybe the future of Uber transactions will be conducted over the Silk Road using bitcoin.
It's not like they need to have a physical presence for their app to work there.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
If taxi drivers have to buy licenses and following certain regulations, shouldn't Uber do the same or are they already?
In Quebec, it costs upwards of 200,000$ CDN to have a taxi license.
Drivers spent their entire life's saving enough to buy their own license while they lease another one's. It's their only retirement plan: lease a license they earned to buy.
No wonder they're pissed.
Like, I get that Uber is trying to fight the vast bureaucracy of protectionism and statism found worldwide, where established businesses pay off corrupt politicians to ensure their over priced and out of date businesses are kept going. But perhaps viva la Socialist Protectionism all government intervention is good France might not be the best place to do so yeah?
Regardless of whether the laws as written are correct (I would argue that the very existence of a "medallion" that costs more than the filing fee is evidence of collusion between the taxi authority and the taxi's) Uber has shown direct contempt for the rule of law. Their CEO's frequently ignore court orders, not only that but they frequently do the exact opposite of what a court has ordered. In Korea the authorities were forced to start fining drivers record amounts, in Germany the authorities had to threaten to seize cars and fines in excess of $25K. None of this should be necessary as Uber should have shut down their platform in the area when the courts ruled against the legality of their service. If they didn't like the ruling they should have complied while challenging the ruling.
I've said all along the only way to get Uber to comply with the law is stop arresting drivers and start arresting executives for facilitating breaking the law. I'm happy to see the French are finally going to follow through at least partly, I doubt targeting these executives will do the trick the Uber corporate executives will simply let them burn, though the seizure of communications may give them the evidence they need to really get the law breaking to stop, that is to issue InterPOL red notices (warrants) for the CEO and heads of Uber corporate. I firmly believe that Uber acts in total disregard of the law because of their CEO and that the only way to get it to stop is directly go after that CEO. Once he's looking at a jail term I suspect Uber will suddenly become a law abiding business.
IMO Uber acts as a corrupt organization with contempt of the law and should be targeted under RICO statutes.
Why?
Last post!
I dont understand France or Greece
There, fixed that for you.
Greece is in it's predicament because of it's endemic corruption. Tax evasion isn't just a national past time in Greece, it's considered an inalienable right. France does not have this problem.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Or at least I hope you are, and you're not just a paid shill/astroturfer (you're a bit too crude for that), but you've also never had a mini-gun pointed at him by private "security" personal because you asked for better pay. You've never had terrorists come in the night and cut your families throats for the same thing (google "Coca-Cola South America" sometime). You have no bloody idea what the hell your talking about. If you did you probably wouldn't be trolling it and you'd go back to goatse and Natalie Portman Hot Grits.
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This has not always been the case, the industry was heavily regulated and protected until the mid 1980's, which made taxis expensive and inflexible (a taxi could not be hailed from the street for instance, passengers could only be picked up from taxi stands).
Then came deregulation, almost completely, and several times a smoking wreck would break down halfway to my destination, (if the driver even knew where he was going) which usually involved shouting and threats.
I don't use taxis as much as I used to, but it sounds like the issue where you live is poor regulations.
Absolutely ridiculous. Greece is in its situation exactly BECAUSE capitalist pigs were running free in a country that couldn't handle the damage the corporate fascists like Uber and the banks cause.
Unregulated corporate fascism and unregulated financial markets are exactly what leads to the bigger and bigger gap between the rich and the poor and the collapses we see.
Have you already forgotten the real estate bubble that hit the oh-so-mighty USA?
Capitalism, if not regulated by government, is always doomed to grow like cancer and suck the social system dry until the whole system fails.
The regulations existed long before uber did, "computer dispatch" is so 1970. You can't change those regulations by pretending they don't apply to computers, so ultimately it is uber who will have to change to comply with those regulations, just like every other "get rich quick" scheme that ignores business realities such as compulsory insurance. There's nothing inherently wrong with the uber concept, but flouting the current laws in order to implement it is basically the definition of organised crime.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Now the rest of the world should do the same.
Except for the Uber drivers who assault, rape, or kidnap passengers.
http://www.people.com/article/...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/uber-...
You are welcome on my lawn.
France doesn't have that problem? Tell that to all the wealthy ex-pats who left the country after France was proposing a 75% income tax. And you think corruption is unique to Greece? Btw, "There, fixed that for you" went out with Barney 5 years ago. He was the purple dinosaur btw.
What part about "unregulated" did you fail to understand?
Pure capitalism can't work. If there weren't customer protection laws, corporations would get away with food that poisons you and it's your own fault for not reading the poison sign, devices that fall apart after a week so you need to buy a new one to increase profits, produced by workers in just bearable enough conditions so they don't die after a week, to maximize their workforce.
Pure capitalism is pure darwinism, something a civilized society should not embrace under any circumstance.
What do you think a law is that says food must not be poisonous? A law that mandates manufacturer warranties? Minimum wage? Union rights? Could it be STATE REGULATION? Why do you think those laws need to exist in the first place? q.e.d.
The problem with Greece is not over-regulation, the problem is endemic corruption. Have you ever been to Greece? It is even next to impossible to get a receipt in a restaurant.
Er, no. Greece is in trouble because the Euro doesn't give them any way to handle a crisis. The failure of the euro wasn't just predictable, it was predicted.
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It is a gesture. However there is a set of laws in France regulating cars with drivers that are not taxis. Uber does not seem to abide by this.
Uber operates outside the bounds of the law in France. This is well documented. There are two sets of law that they do not obey. The first is one regulating car drivers that are not taxis. It is legal in France to operate a car service to drive people from A to B but you need to abide by some restrictions. The car cannot be hailed, only booked. The driver must have some qualification, etc. Uber does not abide by these laws. The second set of law protects the consumer. In particular, data must be viewable and deletable by the consumer, and they cannot be retained indefinitely. Again Uber does not follow the law.
Recently the french equivalent to state department pointed out to Uber that they needed to change some things, so what did they do? They opened service in 5 new cities with no change. This was seen as provocation, and so obviously the top executives were brought in for questioning. The french cannot state on the one hand that something is illegal and on the other let it happen. They had to act.
Now maybe the law needs to change, this is an important debate. In the meantime in a law-based country the law needs to be upheld.
You don't know the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance?
You say "let's be honest", then make up some fantasy which doesn't apply to "most countries". Maybe to yours, but not to "most countries". In Germany all the taxis I've taken have been spotless, driven by polite drivers (except one, who briefly complained about having to break a 50), are well maintained, and usually a new(-ish) Mercedes. They turn up when called, or are available to flag down on the street. Germany doesn't want Uber as the taxi service here works well.
Government decides to curb Uber's activities, as they operate outside of the law. The government refuses to do so, so the taxi drivers participate in the oldest French activity - protesting. The government listens, and decides it should do what it said it would have done. As people are innocent until proven guilty, you'll find most people are innocent when they are arrested. But whatever - you've got your narrative, so stick with it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
They are not innocent. Vice versa, the Uber managers knew perfectly well from the start that their company is breaking the laws. It's not as if these laws and regulations are secret, you know...
It's also hard to pay taxes when you are unemployed, which is a much bigger problem.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Have you looked at a graph of Greece's unemployment? It's jumped from <10% to >25% since the crisis began.
They need to increase the flow of money around the economy to stimulate job growth. During a downturn the velocity of money shrinks, so no free win there. It's unlikely they're going to increase exports, so a trade surplus is unlikely. They won't be borrowing more money from the banking sector any time soon. Which only leaves a government deficit to stimulate the economy, which is prevented by the Maastricht treaty.
Without leaving the Euro, Greece is screwed.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
You say "let's be honest", then make up some fantasy which doesn't apply to "most countries". Maybe to yours, but not to "most countries". In Germany all the taxis I've taken have been spotless, driven by polite drivers (except one, who briefly complained about having to break a 50), are well maintained, and usually a new(-ish) Mercedes. They turn up when called, or are available to flag down on the street. Germany doesn't want Uber as the taxi service here works well.
Every a story like this is posted here I'm reminded of how American /. is. The fact that /. is American is of course posted in the FAQ so I respect that and as a European consider myself a guest here. The entirely different experience of reality Americans have is so evident by how many posters bitch and moan about how the political system is broken and doesn't represent them and praise free market capitalism. Yet all that could be easily refuted by looking at other Western democracies - i.e. those that live up to the name. Regulation can work because it does in Europe. Representatives can listen to their constituents more than to lobbyists because in Europe they do. Probably Australia and New Zeeland fall into that category of countries as well. People from these countries can just shake their heads at what Americans complain about and how they presume it's the same everywhere. And I shake my head even more when I occasionally see ignorant idiots (probably teenagers rebelling against everything) jump on that bandwagon and making the same complaints about their own countries just because it's trendy on a site like this. Without any knowledge of reality around them. And they reinforce the narrow-minded, "it must be just as dysfunctional everywhere" view of Americans. Such a pathetic clusterfuck!
Guess what, licensed taxi drivers do that too:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-s...
http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/03/...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/u...
Then there was the case in Dublin where a woman was dropped of by a taxi driver (after first dropping of the guy she was with), driving around the block and raping her. It turned out the taxi was sublet by the plate owner.
I can't speak to cab drivers in the UK, but it sounds like you're saying cabdrivers are cabdrivers and Uber drivers should be treated the same as licensed drivers,
Which is all I'm saying.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The difference is immaterial wrt to my argument because the result is the same - the government doesn't get its tax revenue, and both come about from ill-conceived tax policies.
Right, because in the absence of government intervention no private company would ever fill the void by coming up with businesses that allow people to review products so that others can avoid corporations taking shortcuts with their products. I didn't realize Consumer Reports, IIHS, and Yelp were government-run enterprises.
He would call the government and protesters "Sisyphists," since they apparently believe it is better that the consumer has to work harder to get a ride. http://www.econlib.org/library...
About time someone realized what needs to be done.
Next up: Bank Execs.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Oh right, I got the idea you'd posted the three links to suggest that Uber drivers are more likely to be untrustworthy, so I just posted another three links to suggest that taxi drivers of every variety can be untrustworthy. In the interest of balance, that's all.
Quite frankly, I'd prefer that licensed taxis drivers were treated like Uber drivers - they get their photo and reg number sent to the customer's phone for posterity.
"Pure capitalism" doesn't mean "no laws ever!!!1!".
Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.