Top Uber executives on trial in France over 'illegal taxi' charges

[FrodosPet]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/11/top-uber-executives-on-trial-in-france-over-illegal-taxi-charges

Thursday 11 February 2016 19.35 EST

Two top Uber executives appeared Thursday in court in charges that could send them to prison, and hand the ride-hailing company one of its most serious legal challenges to date in France.

The San Francisco-based company has shut down UberPop, its lowest-cost service which connected users to non-professional drivers, and prompted the criminal charges, in places such as Spain and Italy. But it continues to operate in France despite repeated strikes and sometimes violent tensions with taxi drivers.

Charges against Thibaud Simphal, general manager for France, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, chief for western Europe, include running an illegal taxi operation, commercial deception and violation of French privacy law by illegally stocking, processing and recording personal information.

~ snip ~

“Our lawyers don’t even know what we are exactly blamed for,” especially in the privacy counts, Meister told The Associated Press ahead of the trial. More than 200 UberPop drivers have been fined under fast-track procedures in France and one was handed a 15-day suspended prison term, but Thursday’s trial is the first for Uber managers in France. Uber France has already been convicted of commercial deception and fined €150,000 ($170,000) over UberPop.

~ snip ~

[JanMichael]

1. good. nt.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Fucking awesome!

[gratuitous]

3. Did you know . . . ?

If an Uber driver misbehaves, like, oh, say, making turns without a signal, cutting you off, letting a passenger off without getting out of the lane of traffic (for multiple examples), and you get their license number, make and model of car, and a description of all the moving violations the Uber driver made in five blocks, there's no place to report him to Uber?

You can't contact Uber to register a complaint about a driver or report multiple traffic violations. You can't contact Uber online. You can't call Uber. You can't get an address for Uber to send them a written complaint through the mail. Did you know that?

I found it very interesting.