The court ruled on Wednesday that the 2015 ban on its p2p UberPop service was extended to professional drivers who provide its ride-hailing service. Uber will stop its ride-hailing service in most parts of Belgium tomorrow.

Uber told us that it is studying the details of the ruling to decide whether to appeal to the country's Supreme Court.

The move also occurred after Uber temporarily suspended services in Brussels in September-the tech giant called it an "exceptional and unprecedented" action, saying it was only taking steps to protest the lack of rule reforms that prohibit drivers from using smartphones.

Following the ruling of the Brussels Court of Appeal this week, private car hire drivers have also been blocking a major tunnel in the Belgian capital.

Ça y est. Les chauffeurs LVC bloquent la ville. About peut difficilement leur en vouloir vu la façon dont @rudivervoort et @PSofficiel ont joué avec leur avenir depuis 1 an. Quand on Tire de trop sur l'élastique, il finit par peter. Et @Ecolo et @defi_eu laissent faire ça? Pic.twitter.com/5T5IpbGIRm

-Christophe De Beukelaer (@cdebeukelaer), November 24, 2021

In a statement to be closed on Friday, Uber’s national head Laurent Slitz once again criticized the Belgian government for not implementing the reforms it had been lobbying for. He wrote: “This decision is based on the appearance of smartphones Made by outdated regulations. In the past seven years, the government has promised no reforms."

According to Bloomberg, which reported earlier that Uber was shutting down, it will not apply to the small number of drivers licensed in the Flemish region of the country-so they will still be allowed to use the app.

Uber confirmed that the Court of Appeal’s decision only affects drivers holding a Brussels driving license.

In the statement, Slits added that the tech giant is “deeply concerned” about the 2,000 LVC license (i.e., rent-a-car with driver’s license) holders, and he said they will “start Friday [through Uber’s platform] losing revenue generation ability".

This phrase-"generating revenue"-refers to Uber not directly hiring drivers in Belgium; instead, it classifies them as independent contractors. Therefore, it cannot claim to lose 2,000 “jobs” because it did not provide an employment contract to the LVC driver in question in the first place.

"We urge the government to act quickly to reform the taxi and LVC departments once and for all so that drivers can continue to work and support their families," Slits added.

As early as March, the local government in Brussels banned Uber drivers from picking up cars through smartphones and geolocation.

Since then, Uber drivers in the city have been operating in a legal gray area - they continue to use their apps to drive, risking sanctions. However, the company said that drivers received mixed information, claiming that the authorities sometimes privately tell drivers that they can continue driving.

An Uber spokesperson called the government's order in March "wrong" - pointing out that it had promised to reform the law before the summer. According to Reuters, the Belgian government formulated a draft law to reform the rules in September. However, according to Uber, the entire industry has not yet seen the text.

Uber stated that Belgium broadly supports the reform of the 1995 rules-not only from LVC drivers who provide services to customers through its platform, but also from traditional taxi companies.

However, local taxi companies in Brussels have their own reform ideas-and also said they are keen to hire Uber drivers to make up for the shortage of taxi drivers.

An industry spokesperson recently told TaxiPro that there is a shortage of more than 600 taxi drivers in the capital that can be filled by LVC holders who have been driving for Uber.

"The biggest advantage is that we provide solutions for these Uber drivers," Sam Bouchal told the publication in September [translated into English via Google Translate]. He said that Uber drivers could be offered permanent contracts and added: "We It’s to get them out of illegal behavior."

Bouchal also told TaxiPro that the taxi industry wanted to avoid what he called "social massacre."

For many years, worries about gig working conditions have been a hot topic throughout Europe, leading to many legal challenges. The European Supreme Court ruled that Uber is a transportation service in 2017 and therefore cannot simply circumvent local taxi regulations.

In the United Kingdom, Uber was also forced to admit that the driver is a worker after losing the last string of employment challenges in the country’s Supreme Court.

However, in Belgium-the core power center of the European Commission-the ride-hailing giant is continuing to lobby for favorable changes to the law to lubricate the engine of its platform business.

Uber is also lobbying the European Commission to address the EU single market ride-hailing regulations in the upcoming urban transport framework-EU executives stated that it wants to support "a safe, accessible, inclusive, and affordable urban transport system." development of". , Intelligence, flexibility and emission-free". 

Uber’s hope is that EU legislators will seek to apply rules that override city-level regulations-to develop a pan-EU support framework for online car-hailing services, which means it can ignore local authorities’ requirements.

How four European cities are adopting micro-transportation to drive cars

However, the committee also stated that it hopes that the urban transport framework will address the problem of "traffic pollution and congestion"-therefore, it is unclear what significance removing the regulatory barriers to online car-hailing has in addition to being counterproductive in this regard.

Considering how much space a car needs and compared to trains, buses, biking, scooters, walking, etc., relatively few people can move in the space occupied by a car, and cars are still transported in dense urban environments The least efficient way for people. The rise of micro-transportation has also promoted the range of available car alternatives-so the arguments in favor of urban cars are rapidly shrinking.

The coronavirus pandemic has also led many European cities to focus on transforming street infrastructure into more pedestrian and localized roads, while taking advantage of the rise of micro-transportation to formulate policies that deliberately downplay cars. In short, cleaner air and more vibrant local streets (and school bike trains) are indisputable.

Although Brussels is not at the forefront of these developments, the city has been working hard in recent years to reduce the number of cars on its notoriously crowded, polluted and smoky roads. Therefore, the Belgian government may well have reason to stop and consider the impact of any car-hailing reforms.

At the same time, the European Commission has been formulating another legislative measure-it hopes to improve the conditions of platform workers across the group in response to high concerns about factors such as lack of job security and unstable income.

In this regard, Uber has also been busy lobbying - and has been accused of pushing EU lawmakers to lower the standards for platform workers. Critics say Uber is trying to replicate its success in overturning a California law that attempts to classify temporary workers as employees.

Therefore, the street struggle of the European Social Contract is very real.

Uber lobbied the European Union to develop standards for "Prop 22" performances

Update: The Brussels government has announced an agreement on the reform of the taxi industry-it said it will focus on four main goals: a common legal framework for the industry; improving the quality of service to customers; regulating the booking platform; and protecting the local economy.

Uber welcomed this and issued a statement saying it was “an important first step for the 2,000 drivers who have been waiting for reform for seven years”; The drivers negotiate and submit the proposal to the parliament, and at the same time take immediate action to protect the drivers’ income opportunities so that they can continue to support their families.”

However, in a statement, the Brussels government accused Uber of bringing legal risks to LVC drivers. Minister Rudi Vervoort said that Uber has irresponsibly allowed the industry to develop, "there is a ban on the device. "Legal risks" and "misleading" LVC drivers-pointed out that since the 2015 ruling to ban UberPop, the number of drivers in the LVC department with Brussels licenses has increased by nearly 448%.

"I feel deeply about the plight of LVC drivers. They are not responsible for this situation," Vervoort added.

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