Brussels, 23/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - At his own request the American head of Uber, Travis Kalanick, met three European commissioners on Monday 23 May - Elzbieta Bienkowska (Interrnal Market), Violeta Bulc (Transport) and Carlos Moedas (Research) to discuss the collaborative economy.
Very little information has filtered out from the meeting. When asked by Reuters on Friday 20 May, about the meeting, Deputy Chief Spokesperson for the European Commission Alexander Winterstein said that the Commission felt that new technologies of this sort widened the range of choices on offer to European consumers and ensured ever more competitive prices. He added, however, that a balanced competitive framework had to be found, for example, with taxi drivers. “The commissioner (Violeta Bulc) met with the International Road Transport Union in March and again in July of last year”, to discuss this issue, said the spokesperson on transport policy Jakub Adamowicz.
The Commission wants to send two main messages, we were told from inside the institution. In the first instance, it does not back any economic model over another but stresses that each and every company must comply with the national and local laws in force - even though the transport commissioner has always clearly voiced her support of these new services (see EUROPE 11289). Secondly, the Commission, as guardian of the treaties, states unequivocally that the fundamental principles of proportionality, non-discrimination and freedom of establishment set out in the European treaties must be observed.
Another source has said that the Commission is currently looking for ways to encourage the development of these new services as part of the collaborative economy, which forms a large part of the single market strategy (see EUROPE 11417 and 11419). “At the same time, there are important issues related to consumer rights, taxes and labour law that need to be addressed”, the source added.
Between now and the middle of the year, the Commission will present guidance to clarify how European law applies specifically to this emerging sector which challenges a number of traditional models - in transport, for taxi drivers, and also in the tourism sector where hotels are facing competition from Airbnb (see EUROPE 11422).
The Commission is currently trying to determine whether Uber is a transport or digital services company (see EUROPE 11379) in order to establish the legal basis for European legal action. The US-based company has lodged four complaints, two against France and one each against Germany and Spain. For the moment, none has resulted in infringement proceedings, the Commission tells us.
Uber continues to make the headlines with, most recently, revelations on its system of pricing that depends on how well customers' phones are charged: the closer the phone is to the end of its battery life the higher prices are, the theory being that the lower consumers' phone batteries are the less likely they are to question prices.
Nevertheless, the American company appears to be an increasing important player in technological innovation in transport, recently announcing it would be working with Ford on a driverless car to compete with Google and Tesla. Although still at its very first commercial steps, the driverless car is the focus of attention of both Commission and member states, which recently adopted a declaration with a view to ensuring the development of this sector between now and 2019 (see EUROPE 11532). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)