Photo: ReutersLuxembourg/Paris: Fifteen judges at the European Union’s top court are trying to decide, once and for all, whether Uber Technologies Inc. is an app or a transport company. Uber’s activities “cannot be reduced to a mere transport activity,” Cani Fernandez, a lawyer for the US company, told the highest panel of judges at the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday. UberPop is also at the center of a dispute in Barcelona, Spain, where a court decided last year to seek the EU judges’ guidance. Damien Geradin, a lawyer at Brussels law firm EDGE Legal, said “there is little doubt that Uber provides information society services as there is no such thing as an Uber taxi or an Uber driver.”A negative ruling for Uber “would essentially affect the Uber Pop service, i.e. Uber products, including UberX and Uber Black, that use licensed drivers, are used in a number of EU nations and “are not at stake here.”The EU court has already shown its teeth in other cases involving US tech giants.

Source: Mint November 29, 2016 13:01 UTC