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EU's Top Court Rules That Uber Is a Transportation Company (axios.com)
Uber is a taxi company, according to a landmark ruling from Europe's highest court. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Wednesday that the U.S. ride-hailing app is a transportation firm and not a digital company. The verdict is a long-awaited judgment expected to have major implications for how Uber is regulated throughout Europe. From a report: The E.U.'s member countries now have more clarity and authority to regulate Uber as a transportation company (more strictly than as a tech service), though many already do so. As a technology company, Uber would have been protected by E.U. law from certain restrictions by individual countries, and would have required them to notify the commission of any new regulations.
...the government having to jump in and make new regulations and burdens on companies that isn't needed...
I don't think this is about trying to make new regulations. It's about trying to enforce employee protection regulations already in place that Uber claims don't apply to its drivers. The regulations aren't new to "transportation firms"; they're just new to Uber.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
In other words....government finds a way to get in and mess up something that has been innovative, proven popular and successful.
You mean a company that has been losing money at a clip of $500 million every month with no signs of profitability even in the face of ignoring the law to save money and grow. Yeah, SUPER successful... [/sarcasm]
Good thing govt wasn't this bad a 100 or so years ago....we'd otherwise still have a thriving buggy whip industry.
Peculiar view of how wonderful the world was 100 years ago. 100 years women weren't allowed to vote, minorities (particularly blacks) were subject to Jim Crow laws which wouldn't end for another 50 years, the Fair Labor Standards Act wouldn't be passed for another 20 years, etc.
This notion that government is always bad is in stark denial of reality.
Yeah. All this evil government regulation is why you can choose from a dozen or more ISPs almost everywhere in Europe. You get to choose... the only one that operates in your fucking town. Well done you.
The same evil government regulation has made calling between nations in Europe cost next to fuck all whereas it used to cost a small fortune. Boo, government.
Libertarians. Boring one-note fuckers.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
That's nice that you want all of that, but what you want isn't really all that important to society. It's more important that companies treat their employees properly, and play on a level playing field. Of course it's cheaper to take a Uber than a taxi: They don't pay the same taxes and fees that taxi companies pay, they don't pay their "employees" anywhere near what taxi companies pay, and they're fueled by dot-com bullshit money. While you make a great case for your own convenience, you have ignored the needs of everybody else involved in your (selfish) decisions.
I don't respond to AC's.
As a passenger, I don't give a shit who owns the car. There is one organization that sets all of the rules and all of the prices for all taxis. That's a monopoly. Uber drivers own their own cars too, but Uber is still a single organization. Just because a Taxi driver own's one medallion and one car doesn't make him any more independent than an Uber driver. That fact is precisely what this court case was about.
That "one organization" you are referring to is the local government. The next city over has another, completely separate "one organization" that sets the rules for all taxi companies that operate within it's jurisdiction.
I don't think you understand what monopoly means. Government regulation of an industry does not make it a monopoly.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin