Private taxis like Uber and Cabify move to sue Spanish government
Spain has passed a law allowing regions to limit ridehailing vehicles if their numbers will negatively impact the environment
Feneval and Unauto-VTC, which represent companies such as Uber and Cabify, will soon ask the European Commission to initiate legal action against the Government of Spain, which has this week approved legislation that will essentially limit these private taxi hire services across the country.
The regulations approved on Tuesday June 27 will allow Spanish regions to limit the number of licences granted to PHVs (private hire vehicles) if their increased number would add to environmental pollution or traffic congestion. It’s a move the state-owned taxi drivers have been waiting for, since they’ve argued for some time that the likes of Uber and Cabify consistently undercut their prices and corner the market.
The PHVs, however, aren’t taking the matter lying down, and insist that the new regulation approved by Spain “contravenes” the latest European ruling on the sector.
“Once again we find an express regulation in the form of a Royal Decree Law, negotiated with the taxi sector instead of with the representatives of the sector that is intended to be regulated, without having been consulted at any time about the draft that has been taken to the Council of Ministers. All of this in the middle of the electoral campaign, with the undisguised objective of currying favour with the taxi and avoiding massive mobilisations,” the unions scathingly accused in a statement.
The new Spanish law, which PHV drivers claim is “discriminatory and disproportionate”, also requires that licence holders own or lease the vehicle for at least three months prior to hitting the roads as a hire car, and the legislation has increased the requirements regarding the reduction of CO2 emissions for such vehicles.
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