Frankfurt court bans Uber. At least temporarily, the controversial rental car service via smartphone app, which has sparked protests and strikes among taxi drivers across Europe, and a violent protest in Milan, will not be able to transmit user requests to drivers in Germany. It is the first time that Uber has undergone a similar procedure on a national scale.
The Frankfurt court decision comes after an appeal filed by German taxi associations which accuse Uber not only of competing abusively, essentially offering an unlicensed taxi service, but also of not being a real start-up, but a company that enjoys of billions in liquidity received from giants such as Goldman Sachs and Google.
For Uber, this is not the first unfavorable measure on German soil: the company had already suffered similar ones in Berlin and Hamburg, but was able to return to business after filing an appeal. The provision of the Frankfurt court, however, provides for fines of up to 250 thousand euros for violations.
