French Uber bosses to stand trial while New York City considers capping the company's growth
Uber’s top executives in France will stand trial over a slew of charges while the company faces a city-mandated limit on growth in New York City.
A French court today ordered the CEO of Uber France and the company’s Europe General Manager to face charges relating to the UberPOP service (which uses drivers without specialized taxi licenses) that inspired violent protests from taxi drivers last week because it uses drivers without specialized taxi licenses.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Uber executives Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty and Thibaud Simphal (and Uber itself) face charges of “deceptive commercial practices” and “enabling illegal taxi services and illicit storage of personal data.” The executives were taken into custody on Monday.
Meanwhile, in New York City, city legislators are considering capping the growth of the largest for-hire car services like Uber to a maximum of 1 percent of their current vehicle base until the results of a congestion impact study are released in August 2016. According to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, there are currently 13,400 yellow taxis in New York City and about 63,000 for-hire vehicles. Uber estimates they have around 27,000 cars in the city.
“The bill being heard today would limit Uber to adding only 200 new vehicles in the next 14 months,” Josh Mohrer, General Manager of Uber NYC, told the crowd outside City Hall today. “That means 9,800 of those job opportunities will be lost.”
But having an impact study before issuing more licenses would put companies like Uber on par with the requirements for taxis, said Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, New York City Council’s Transportation Committee Chair and sponsor of two bills: one to start the impact study and one to cap growth during the study. Both were discussed this afternoon in a relatively fiery hearing of the transportation committee at New York’s council chambers.
Outside the chambers, protestors from Uber and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance union vented their frustrations, with drivers pacing in front of the gates.
“Our business has been ruined so badly that we are under debt right now. Uber has taken control of NYC,” said 34-year-old Jaspreet Singh, one of about a dozen yellow cab drivers outside City Hall gates with hand-written signs reading “Uber Killing Yellow Cabs.”
Singh and other members of the union say their livelihoods have been ruined by the arrival of Uber because they are disadvantaged by having to pay for NYC taxi medallions to be authorized cab drivers whereas Uber drivers are just required to get a Taxi and Limousine Commission-issued license for a $100 fee. The current value of a medallion is estimated between $700,000 and $900,000.