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| Uber wins high court case over taxi app | Uber wins high court case over taxi app |
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| The taxi-booking service Uber has received a boost after the high court ruled that its app was legal in London. Had it lost the case, the company would have been forced to change its service to comply with rules that protect black-cab drivers. | |
| Related: Q&A: Uber court case in London | |
| The city’s transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL), had brought the case after pressure from the capital’s black-cab and minicab drivers, who claimed the Uber app was being used as a taximeter. The taximeter is a privilege afforded only to black-cab drivers in return for the extensive training they undergo to learn London’s streets. | The city’s transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL), had brought the case after pressure from the capital’s black-cab and minicab drivers, who claimed the Uber app was being used as a taximeter. The taximeter is a privilege afforded only to black-cab drivers in return for the extensive training they undergo to learn London’s streets. |
| But Lord Justice Ouseley ruled that Uber’s mobile service did not constitute a taximeter. “A taximeter, for the purposes of section 11 of the Private Hire Vehicles Act 1998 does not include a device that receives GPS signals in the course of a journey, and forwards GPS data to a server located outside of the vehicle, which server calculates a fare that is partially or wholly determined by reference to distance travelled and time taken and sends the fare information back to the device,” his written judgement said. | |
| Ouseley said that while the smartphone with the driver’s app may be essential to enable the calculation of fares, that did not make it a device “for” calculating fares, which would breach the taximeter prohibition. | |
| Uber described the ruling as a victory for common sense and took aim at plans by Transport for London to impose new regulations on the company. | |
| “Now the high court has ruled in favour of new technology, we hope Transport for London will think again on their bureaucratic proposals for apps like Uber,” said Jo Bertram, Uber’s regional general manager for UK, Ireland and the Nordics. | |
| “Compulsory five-minute waits and banning ride-sharing would be bad for riders and drivers. These plans make no sense. That’s why 130,000 people have already signed our petition against these proposals. We hope TfL will listen to Londoners and let Uber keep London moving.” | |
| Around 1 million people have signed up to the service in London, where it has 18,000 drivers. | |
| Related: Uber has challenged the taxi industry and it’s too late to apply the brakes | |
| TfL said its view had always been that smartphones were not taximeters, but there was significant public interest in establishing legal certainty. | |
| The TfL consultation on taxi apps includes the proposal of an interval of at least five minutes between booking an Uber journey and the driver picking up the passenger, in an attempt to stop instantaneous bookings. | |
| TfL said it would continue with its consultation which aims to address the rapid growth in the number of private-hire cars on the road. The number of drivers of such cars is set to reach 128,000 over the next two years, twice the figure in 2010, causing concern over congestion, illegal parking and air quality. | |
| Leon Daniels, TfL’s managing director of surface transport, said: “With legal certainty established over taximeters, we will continue to work hard with all of our stakeholders to deliver taxi and private-hire services which meet the needs of modern London. | |
| “Disruptive technology and new business models have radically changed the way that taxi and private-hire services operate and has widened customer choice. This is welcome. At the same time, as the regulator, we must ensure that regulatory requirements are met and are developed in a way that delivers the high standards customers deserve.” | |
| Related: From Rio to Paris - Uber is fighting battles across the globe | |
| The chief executive of Addison Lee, the biggest minicab firm in London, said the ruling was disappointing. | |
| “This is a sad day for London,” Andy Boland said. “This judgment opens the door to a return to the bad old days of cabs charging what they like and the passenger not knowing what the fare is until it is too late.” | |
| The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association said it had lodged an immediate appeal against the ruling in the supreme court. However, TfL said it would not appeal. | |
| The growth of Uber in the UK will continue later on Friday when it launches its service in Glasgow, its first incursion into Scotland. | |
| Uber is in a series of disputes with regulators around the world. | Uber is in a series of disputes with regulators around the world. |