Uber files a complaint against Spain before the European Union
The war between the private transport application and Spanish laws is far from over. Thus, despite the fact that Uber seemed to have found a new equilibrium to manage to operate inSpain thanks to the distribution of food, now surprises by reporting its impossibility of operating in this country before the European CommissionA formal complaint raised during the last day and with solid arguments before the recent ban on acting as a transport company.
According to the newspaper El País, the company Uber has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission alleging that the Spanish ban on operating as a transport application is against the law And the fact is that the latest judicial decision that effectively prohibited the operation of Uber hinders the interests of the application for “protect the traditional taxi monopoly”, as quoted in the complaint to which El País has had access.
Far from being a tantrum or just another scene from this soap opera, Uber seems well-founded on the basis ofunderstand the company as an intermediation Internet service, and not as a transport company.Thus, it wants it to be understood and treated like the companies selling flight tickets over the Internet In this way it would market a service transport that is regulated in the framework of information society services And it is that Uber continues to be committed to selling itself as an intermediary for the concept of collaborative economy, putting drivers who provide their journey with users who need transportation. Of course, the reality is quite different, since it is the traveller who chooses the route, paying a previously established rate and whose 20 percent goes to Uber
However, by presenting itself as an electronic service, Uber denounces that the Spanish judicial decision has violated various European laws These include the electronic commerce directives, the freedom to provide services or the principle of technological neutralityBut the complaint goes further, even claiming to have violated the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Once Brussels decides if the Uber complaint is viable or not, it may ask Spain to change its mind regarding its judicial decision. Even so, Spain could refuse and make the case go to the European Court of Justice At the moment no deadlines for the European Commission to issue a resolution to the formal complaint filed by Uber, so we will have to wait. And it is that the work accumulates after the company presented several claims also against France and Germany, where it is also encountering problems to operate.
Uber began operating in April 2014 in Barcelona , then changing to Madrid and ValenciaHowever, the judicial order forced the suspension of its operation, becoming blocked through Internet operators for said order. At the moment it continues to operate in Barcelona thanks to its UberEats service, which instead of transporting people serves as food delivery to address We will have to wait to see how this issue is resolved, or if it decides to start paying taxi licenses to its Spanish drivers as it has begun to do in Germanyin order to surround and respect the law of the country.
