Skip to main content

Uber to learn London license fate with judge's ruling Today

Uber [UBER.UL] will hear on Tuesday if a bid to overturn a ruling stripping it of its license to operate in London has succeeded, after a court heard about its difficult relationship with the city’s transport regulator.

The taxi-hailing app overhauled its policies and personnel in Britain after Transport for London (TfL) refused to renew its license in September for failings in its approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.

“We’ve had five years of a very difficult relationship, where Uber has felt that it hasn’t required regulation,” TfL’s licensing director Helen Chapman told the court on Tuesday, adding it had been “frankly frustrating” that issues TfL should have been aware of were first reported in the media.

While the appeal process is ongoing, Uber can continue to operate in the city, and Tuesday’s decision can also be appealed, meaning the whole legal process could take years.

With backers including Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and BlackRock (BLK.N) and valued at more than $70 billion, Uber has faced protests, bans and restrictions around the world as it challenges traditional taxi operators, angering some unions.

Uber, which has about 45,000 drivers in London, introduced several new initiatives in response to the ruling, including 24/7 telephone support and the proactive reporting of serious incidents to police. It has also changed senior management in Britain, its biggest European market.

The ruling has been a test of Uber’s new management at the board level, with chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who took charge the month before TfL’s decision, pledging to “make things right” in London.

Uber’s corporate culture has changed since Khosrowshahi’s arrival, company officials told the court on Monday, promising better practices and more transparency.

After its application for a five-year license was rejected last year, Uber is now seeking an 18-month one to prove to the authorities that it has reformed. But Judge Emma Arbuthnot said on Monday she thought 18 months “would be rather too long.”

Arbuthnot said on Tuesday she expected to give the judgment at around 1600 GMT.

TfL’s lawyer told the court on Monday that if a license was granted by Arbuthnot, it should be under strict conditions which the regulator has agreed with Uber, and for a short duration, as there were questions whether Uber’s changes could be trusted.

Asked if Uber’s more proactive approach since the ruling showed the relationship with the regulator had improved, Chapman said: “It certainly works better when an operator is seeking permission rather than forgiveness.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hurricane Hits Texas, One Person Reported Dead

Hurricane Harvey hit Texas as a Category 4 storm on Friday, battering the coast with 130-mph winds and torrential rain. It was the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade leaving a massive destruction, loss of electricity, wrecked buildings and has so far killed at least one person. Scroll down to see more pictures of the incident:
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenyan Law Court dismisses case of man seeking compensation after his wife eloped with another man from hospital

  A lawsuit filed by a man seeking to be compensated by St Mary's Mission Hospital in Kenya for allowing his wife to leave the hospital with another man after giving birth, has been struck out by a law court.    The appellant had sued the St. Mary's Mission hospital at Kakamega law courts in 2020 seeking general damages from the facility on grounds that the hospital had discharged his wife and allowed her to leave with another man. After delivering and at the time of discharge, the wife of the appellant claimed he was the baby's father.   The court of appeal judges Patrick Kiage, Mumbi Ngugi and Francis Tuiyott sitting at the Kisumu Court of Appeal, empathized with the man, but disagreed that he (the appellant) be compensated by the hospital for not detaining his wife.  They upheld the lower court's judgement which added that there's no remedy that lies in the law for such grievances.   Kiage said;   "I agree that if a man takes the woman he loves to t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Togo prime Minister Komi Klassou resigns

Togo’s prime minister and his government have resigned, the West African nation’s presidency said late Friday. President Faure Gnassingbe congratulated prime minister Komi Selom Klassou and his team for their “economic, political and social efforts and the encouraging results despite the health crisis around the world”, a statement on the presidency’s official website said. Togo has been due for a political reshuffle since Gnassingbe was reelected in February for a fourth term in office, but changes were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s election win, which came after a constitutional change allowing him to run, extended more than a half-century of dynastic rule over the former French colony by the Gnassingbe family. The victory was disputed by the main opposition challenger, who has faced official harassment in the wake of the vote. The president has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnass...
Post a Comment
Read more