Uber tried to argue against its UberPop service being banned in France. It didn't work.
According to the New York Times, in a highly-anticipated decision, the Constitutional Council in France upheld the law Tuesday that banned the UberPop service. The ruling supported a section of a transport law that the French Parliament approved in late 2014 that banned the company's UberPop service, which had drivers without professional licenses picking up paying passengers. UberPop is cheaper than Uber's standard service.
Uber had argued that the law would have also deemed sharing rides against the law, but the Council retorted that ride-sharing was unaffected and that the law fell in line with the Constitution.
The ruling comes as Uber already stopped UberPop service in July, awaiting the decision.
"We suspended UberPop in light of the risk of violence to our riders and driver partners and we will maintain this suspension — the majority of our business continues unaffected," Uber spokesperson Gareth Mead told the Times.
Tuesday's ruling also follows violent protests by French taxi unions, many of which felt that UberPop would undercut them or simply saturate the market and ruin its members' way to make a living. Protests also happened in Spain.
Despite this decision, Uber has been recently valued at $50 billion and has expanded to upwards of 50 countries.
However, it remains to be seen whether France's stance will trigger a trickle-down effect on other European countries and their policies about Uber. If that happens, the ride-hailing service will have to come up with another plan.
"If governments take decisions that we believe are contrary to European law, then of course we will have to decide what to do next," Mark MacGann, Uber's head of European policy, told media back in July, as reported by the Times. "Regulation in some countries was written decades ago before we all carried smartphones in our pockets."
