In Germany, if you transport passengers commercially, your normal insurance does not apply. As, if you operate a car, you have to have an insurance, you have to have a seperate insurance for the cases where you operate a car while transporting someone commercially.
UberPop did not provide those insurances, and instead said the drivers would have to pay them themselves. As that is not acceptable for the drivers, and Uber directly suggests the drivers to just drive without insurance, the courts ruled that Uber will be fined 240k€ for every business interaction its UberPop service does without providing this insurance.
Remember, not all taxi regulations in Europe are crazy, most actually make sense.
>Remember, not all taxi regulations in Europe are crazy, most actually make sense.
That's a bold claim. No government is immune from protectionism legislation and corruption, in fact this is the defacto mode of almost all governments. I'm getting a little sick of Europeans thinking their shit doesn't stink. Paris cab drivers were throwing cinder blocks onto cars with impunity last month. You people aren't special, you're just unbelievable statist to the point of not questioning your government. The German laws sound corrupt as well. Everything about the taxi industry is a shitshow. Lets all accept that. This is why Uber is so exciting and popular. The cab industry deserves to be disrupted. Considering political corruption over the decades, this path won't be easy, but its worth doing.
I’m not saying the government is immune from corruption, and while I do not think protectionism is bad, the government here does not intervene with this at all.
Uber is not even treated legally as taxi service, but as chauffeur-for-hire service, meaning they only need to do 2 things: Their drivers have a drivers license, their cars are insured.
The drivers license for taxi drivers, chauffeurs and bus drivers costs 55€. fifty-five Euro. That’s nothing.
And one can reasonably demand that cars on the street are insured, as especially in car crashes it is helpful.
UberPop did not provide those insurances, and instead said the drivers would have to pay them themselves. As that is not acceptable for the drivers, and Uber directly suggests the drivers to just drive without insurance, the courts ruled that Uber will be fined 240k€ for every business interaction its UberPop service does without providing this insurance.
Remember, not all taxi regulations in Europe are crazy, most actually make sense.