Is Uber Legal Again in Vienna
The War on Uber Continues – Now in Vienna
Merely because Vienna is a city straight out of Medieval ages doesn't mean that information technology tin't adjust its laws to new innovations.
Update: Since this article was released in Apr 2018, Uber has been reinstated in Vienna. And so you can employ Uber once over again. Thankfully, every bit the article below explains.
Vienna is truly one remarkable city. That's all I could think as I was heading downward the streets of the inner metropolis during my evening walk merely before starting to write this very commodity. The cathedrals, the palaces—really, all the buildings—reminding one of past centuries; the horses strutting through the streets with carriages on their back—not to forget the splendid classical music, arts, museums, and and so on which are so visible during the day. And to a higher place all, this is the identify where information technology all started : where Mises, Hayek, Menger, Boehm-Bawerk, and many other Austrians lived, worked, and taught at universities. Information technology is style too easy to fall in love with this city, and that is exactly what happened to me when I arrived here for the kickoff time.
Simply as I was wandering around past the marvelous Rathaus ( boondocks hall ), I got distracted. A taxi had just stopped in front end of me, and with no one around in the surface area but me, I was thinking for a short moment that he hoped I needed a ride, what with me seemingly looking lost instead of impressed by the same buildings I had seen hundreds of times already.
To say that I got enraged by the sight of this single taxi, at least for a second, would exist an understatement. After all, just that afternoon I had opened Uber on my smartphone merely was confronted with the message that "the Uber App in Vienna is currently unavailable."
Not that I was overly-surprised. Just on Wednesday, Uber had announced that it would withdraw from the Austrian capital after having received an injunction from the Commercial Courtroom of Vienna. Every time an Uber driver tries to give someone a ride, he will be hit with a fee of 100,000 euros—yes, that'south one hundred grand .
The reason for this seems obvious (as it always does): subsequently all, Uber had violated paragraph 36 (iii) of the Viennese Taxi-, Mietwagen- und Gästewagenbetriebsordnung, which can exist loosely translated as the Taxi, Rental and Guest Vehicle Operation Ordinance —or, more than just, the taxi regulations.
This paragraph states that picking upwards your customers may only happen at an official identify of the rental provider and that afterwards the ride has finished, the car would have to finish at the provider'south place again. Since Uber couldn't prove to adhere to this rule, the injunction was but a affair of fourth dimension.
Of course, the events of the last days are only some other episode in the long State of war on Uber all around the world. Just tardily last yr, the ride-hailing service was banned in London. When arriving in Bulgaria and Republic of hungary, one is also surprised to detect that no Uber is available , and the app is beingness threatened with existence pulled off the market, too, in Italy, Finland, France, Spain, and kingdom of the netherlands. Fights over it have besides occurred in the US, Commonwealth of australia, and Germany . And the European Courtroom of Justice ruled in December that Uber would have to be considered as a taxi visitor in the European union, thereby having to comply with all regulations coming with information technology.
While all of these rulings are wrapped in supposed "violations of taxi regulations," the real agenda is clear: the highly protected taxi industry has faced major challenges with new competitors entering the market. These competitors are much cheaper , easier to utilize, oftentimes quicker —and even the drivers themselves are improve paid . No wonder, then, that people are dumping the xanthous cab for Uber and Lyft.
It is certainly truthful, by the style, that these ride-hailing apps are violating existing taxi rules—and it is certainly true that it is unfair that Uber drivers don't have to comply with those regulations while taxi drivers practice. The decision, nevertheless, should be that those taxi regulations should exist ditched as quickly every bit possible. Instead of forbidding new services which ameliorate transportation immensely through their innovations, the terminate should be called for old and too-rigid regulations holding dorsum taxi drivers who are unable to compete with the newcomers.
At least in Vienna, there is still hope. Uber has promised to fight back and find a solution. They are optimistic enough to write that "our service will be available in a few days," though information technology's not entirely articulate how that should exist possible, and protests have already taken place in the aftermath of the court ruling, both by Uber drivers themselves as well as young people who rightfully don't empathise why they should be injure past protectionist policies only in being because of political favoritism. When you lot come to think of it, simply because Vienna is a city straight out of Medieval ages doesn't mean that information technology tin't adjust its laws to new innovations.
Writer
The views expressed on austriancenter.com are not necessarily those of the Austrian Economic science Middle.
Related
Source: https://www.austriancenter.com/war-on-uber-continues-vienna/
0 Response to "Is Uber Legal Again in Vienna"
Post a Comment