Uber announced that it decided to suspend its UberPOP services in France for safety reasons. Last week (July 2), anti-Uber protestors damaged Uber cars and even physically attacked Uber drivers in a desperate move to express their frustration. This is only the second time that the five-year-old, California-based company has suspended its services without a judicial court order (due on Sept. 30), reports TechCrunch. The first time was in Portland.
UberPOP was launched in February 2014 allowing drivers to work without a professional driver’s license and has served 500,000 customers in France, according to a company statement. For taxi drivers, who have to pay large sums to practice, this was unfair competition. Brussels, Paris and the entire country of the Netherlands have already banned the service over the past year.
This is not the end for Uber in France, however. UberX, Uber and UberVAN services — which are much more regulated — will be maintained. In fact, Uber will seek to help its 10,000 UberPOP drivers become Uber or UberX drivers.
According to the statement, “UberPOP has been an important source of income for the 10,000 drivers using the platform. They’ve also told us how much they love the flexibility that comes with this work: the freedom to pick their kids up from school, look after an elderly relative or attend an evening course. All on their schedule, working when it is convenient. So our priority now is to get these 10,000 partners back on the road as quickly as possible, potentially as licensed uberX drivers.”
In the midst of these mini-riots, the French police took two Uber France leaders into custody, who will be judged for running illegal taxi operations — which won’t be the first time Uber has had trouble with justice.
With more than 1 million drivers, it says it has provided hundreds of millions of rides in 311 cities and 58 countries around the world. But as Uber continues its global expansion efforts, court cases keep coming. Its latest legal woes are in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, where local Chinese news sources reported that authorities raided Uber’s offices because of suspected illegal operating. Other recent legal troubles for Uber occurred in the Netherlands, where Uber has also been accused of operating illegally. Dutch prosecutors have waged a criminal investigation into Uber’s practices for allegedly offering illegal taxi services.
Meanwhile, the latest figures revealed last week (June 29) show that the ride-sharing company is taking some financial hits, too.
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