Uber is again taking its toys and going home, this time leaving the entire country of Denmark after the country passed new taxi regulations that require drivers for hire to have meters and seat sensors, which apply to app-based transportation networks.
Reuters reports that the company is leaving Denmark on April 18, leaving behind 2,000 drivers and 300,000 users. However, the president of the transport section of the country’s biggest general union says that shutting down the app for good will benefit the country’s 6,000 traditional taxi drivers, who faced competition from drivers not held to the same legal requirements.
Uber has been providing services in Denmark since 2014, but has never been legal, 3F transportation president Jan Villadsen argues. “When [Uber] started two and a half years ago it was illegal and was ruled illegal several times,” he told Reuters.
Denmark’s minority liberal party supported finding a way for Uber and other ride-hailing apps to keep doing business in Denmark, but drivers with regular consumer cars didn’t get an exception carved out of the law for them.
“For us to operate in Denmark again the proposed regulations need to change,” Uber said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the government in the hope that they will update their proposed regulations and enable Danes to enjoy the benefits of modern technologies like Uber.”
The company will keep a software development office that’s based in Denmark, and also stated that it will “allocate resources” to help the drivers who are losing a full- or part-time source of income in just a few weeks.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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