Uber has won its long legal battle to keep its operations open for business in England. Just last Monday, Judge Tan Ikram overturned a newly made ban on the ride-hailing app by the city’s transport regulator, giving the company an 18-month license.
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Over a year ago, the Transport of London banned Uber for the second time in the city’s history. The Transport first declined to renew Uber’s London license in early 2017, claiming a “pattern of failures” that put passengers’ lives at risk.
A technical glitch in Uber’s system has allowed unauthorized drivers to load their photos to other driver’s accounts, and illegally pick up passengers. Judge Ikram said he had “sufficient confidence” Uber “no longer poses a risk to public safety,” at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court. “Despite their historical failings, I find Uber, now, to be a fit and proper person to hold a London private hire vehicle operator’s license,” he added.
The company’s newly renewed London license will last 18 months, and with it come several conditions in a joint agreement between the two parties. Uber shares climbed 6% in premarket trading following the decision but later settled to trade 3% higher. “This decision is a recognition of Uber’s commitment to safety and we will continue to work constructively with the city of London’s transportation department,” said Jamie Heywood, regional general manager for Northern and Eastern Europe.
Uber had tried to aid in reducing passengers’ concerns, including introducing a new verification system to better identify drivers’ through a mix of facial recognition technologies and human reviews. Despite losing their license at the time, the company was still able to operate in London during the appeal process.
London is officially Uber’s largest driving industry city in Europe. The company has over 3.5 million users, and 45,000 drivers in the city capital.
The ruling removes a key source of regulatory uncertainty in London for Uber. The company is still in legal proceedings in the U.K.’s highest Supreme Court, as drivers have sued to be treated as workers, with demands for protections like minimum wage and holiday pay.
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Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/28/uber-granted-temporary-london-license.html
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