On the heels of losing its license to operate in one of its largest markets late last year due to safety concerns, Uber is in the news again. This time it’s even worse; it’s pulling out of an entire country due to its legal problems there.
Uber said late last week that it will halt operations in Colombia due to a lawsuit that said they were breaking local transport laws.
To be in compliance with a December ruling by the country’s Superintendency for Industry and Commerce, the rideshare company’s last day of operations in Colombia will be January 31.
The lawsuit stemmed from local taxi companies that said the app was illegally diverting customers from the country’s traditional yellow taxi. They also claimed that Uber drivers were providing public transportation without proper licensing.
In a related political move, The Washington Post reports that “While the lawsuit was being reviewed by Colombia’s Superintendency for Commerce, taxi drivers’ unions lobbied the government of President Iván Duque to stop Uber and similar apps from operating in Colombia and promised they would not join a large wave of anti-government protests that began at the end of November and undermined support for Colombia’s conservative president.”
hmmm…???
This is, by far, not the first time Uber has been kicked out of an entire country. In the past it’s has to stop services, either temporarily or permanently, in Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Taiwan, as well as dozens of cities or territories around the world.
Uber is, of course, appealing.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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