The battle of ride-share app taxi service versus traditional licensed taxi service won't be ending anytime soon, especially in Germany where five-year-old ride share service provider Uber is vowing to fight a legal injunction against its service.
It's the latest legal tangle facing ride-share app players and it won't be the last as both Uber and its big competitor, Lyft, don't seem to be backing down from protests, legal action and even nasty competitive practices between the two ride-share companies.
And, a bit ironically, 'uber' in German translates to 'above' or 'over.'
A Frankfurt, Germany, court has issued a temporary injunction against Uber, following a court action by Taxi Deutschland, and has set a hearing on the injunction move for later this year. Failure to comply with the court decision could bring big fines ($330,000) and possible jail time.
"We believe innovation and competition is good for everyone, riders, and drivers, everyone wins. You cannot put the brakes on progress," Uber said in a statement.
In August, Uber won in another Germany court battle that was launched over passenger safety issues.
German law does not allow taxi services to charge more than the travel destination cost. Uber and other ride-share services suggest a travel cost plus a fee that it then collects as part of the transaction. According to one report, Uber is financially backed by tech heavyweights including Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Google. Germany is Uber's fastest-growing market.
As TechTimes reported, Uber isn't just looking to expand its services in cities and towns, it's also making big moves to have its app incorporated into third-party tools and services and is encouraging developers to integrate the ride-share app into their software. It has also started to provide delivery services in addition to its transportation service, launching a grocery delivery program in some select Washington, D.C., neighborhoods. That move drew flack nearly immediately as some claimed the service was being rolled out only in affluent neighborhoods.
Uber's partnership list is expanding as well. Most recently, it hooked up with TripAdvisor, United Airlines and OpenTable. Back in May, it announced it was partnering with Google and having its app integrated with Google Maps. It's also rolling out service in 22 college towns in the U.S., it announced on Aug. 28.
On the corporate front, it just hired on a former Obama campaign strategist, David Plouffe, who is slated to start his new job as senior VP of policy and strategy in just a few weeks.
