Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is dealing with the complaints made by the US company, Uber. This company promotes transport services with drivers and the Commission is looking at its case in the following way: the Commission's services at Directorate General Growth (DG GROW) are introducing one complaint and its services Directorate General Transport (DG MOVE) are dealing with the three others, together with contributions made by the services of the directorates general responsible for growth and the digital economy.
The first complaint was submitted at the end of 2014 against France (see EUROPE 12220) and focuses on a procedural question: the non-notification of the 'Thévenoud' law to the European Commission. The three others criticise current practices in France, Germany and Spain and which are, on the contrary, based on questions relating to competition and respect for internal market rules (see EUROPE 11289).
At the same time as tackling these complaints, the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Elzbieta Bienkowska, is in charge of looking into a possible comprehensive regulation on the sharing economy but according to one source working in this area, this is only at “very early stages”.
The same source also pointed out that a number of Commission members “have rather positive feelings” with regard to Uber. In February, the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, wrote that, “services provided by Uber meet at least some of the population's expectations” and that the sharing economy had “the potential to make Europe more efficient” (see EUROPE 11289).
Uber put its case at the European Parliament. Niall Wass, the vice-president of Uber, was at the European Parliament on Wednesday 22 April, to attend a conference on the digital economy organised by the ALDE group. He described the development of the service as a “virtuous circle” where the number of drivers and passengers increased at the same time. He also highlighted the importance of having an adapted regulatory framework to help this development. He also explained that they were not against the rules, quite the contrary, but wanted to have rules that supported innovative industries. He also indicated that he was working towards strengthening the “sharing” service in Uber, so that drivers would be able to take several different passengers on the same journey. He concluded that “our ultimate vision: more people using shared cars, less congestion in the system”. (Jean Comte)