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Top French Court Upholds Ban On UberPop Ride-Sharing Service

The court's decision comes just months after violent protests forced the company to suspend operations.
Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA

France's Constitutional Council has upheld a ban on ride-sharing service UberPop, after the US-based company appealed a decision to suspend the app back in July.

The council's so-called "wise men" threw out the company's appeal, which argued that a new law regulating taxis and chauffeured cars was not in line with the French constitution.

Didier Hogrel, president of France's national taxi federation, applauded the Council's decision and told AFP that the ruling "proved we were right."

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When contacted by VICE News Wednesday, Uber's attorney declined to comment on the council's decision. In a statement published Tuesday, the company described the decision as "disappointing" and vowed to "continue to work with the [French] government to define a modern and pragmatic regulatory framework."

Uber suspended the UberPop service in July after protests against the service turned violent, with reports of several Uber vehicles being attacked by disgruntled taxi drivers. At the time, Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal told French daily Le Monde that the company would await "the Constitutional Council's decision on the Thévenoud law, which is scheduled for September."

Anti-Uber protest in Paris, on June 25.

According to the "Thévenoud Law," which has been in force since early 2015, UberPop is illegal because it uses unlicensed drivers. But the company — which has been operating in France since 2014 — circumvented the ban by launching legal proceedings and continuing to operate the service until a court decision.

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Under the Thévenoud law — which is named after the former secretary of state who was forced to resign because of a tax scandal last year — operating a system that puts clients in touch with unlicensed drivers in return for a fee is punishable with a 300,000 euro ($335,220) fine and two years in prison.

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Uber's main argument is that the wording of the new law is too vague and fails to differentiate between UberPop-registered drivers earning an income and those part of a carpool system, who can sometimes be compensated for their costs. One of the definining principles of French criminal law is the concept known as "the principle of the legality of crimes and penalties." According to this principle, individuals cannot be punished for offenses and by penalties that are not clearly defined.

If the Council had ruled that the new law was indeed too vague, and did not make a clear distinction between carpooling and ride-sharing, then the legislation would have been deemed unconstitutional, and UberPop could have continued to operate.

Unfortunately for Uberpop — and for the 10,000 drivers who are registered with the service — the Council found that carpooling "as defined by the transport code" does not involve a fee, and therefore is distinct from ride-sharing services.

Collaborative economy and unfair competition
The emergence of services like UberPop has raised a number of questions about unfair competition in the workplace and about the imminent "Uberisation" of more and more professional services.

Olivier Ezratty, a professor at the École Centrale de Paris university and the author of the "Guide to Startups," told VICE News that the constant introduction of innovative new apps was "making the established players nervous."

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The important question, said Ezratty, is whether the government can both foster a collaborative economy and still ensure a basic fairness to prevent unfair competition. "The same thing will happen with Airbnb or applications that are still being developped," he warned, adding that, in the future, such apps will "replace notaries and circumvent the need for attorneys."

In a statement released to the press following the Council's decision, French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Economy minister Emmanuel Macron said they were determined to "implement the legislation concerning the public transport of individuals by individuals."

UberPop's France manager Simphal and its general manager for Western Europe Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty will both appear before a criminal court in Paris on September 30, charged with running and enabling illegal taxi operations. The two men were arrested in June, as part of an investigation launched in November 2014.

UberPop remains banned in Spain, Germany and Italy. This summer, anti-Uber protests in Mexico turned violent, with disgruntled cab drivers attacking Uber cars with metal bars and rocks.

Video Shows Mob of Cabbies Attacking Uber Vehicles in Mexico City

Follow Lucie Aubourg on Twitter : @LucieAbrg