European Ruling Buries Uber’s Platform Myth

The European Court of Justice has ruled, without the possibility of appeal, that Uber is a taxi company, not a software one. This is the official beginning of the end of the tech industry's deceitful attempt to present its innovation as something outside previous human experience and therefore outside the scope of previous regulation.

The ruling ends a legal battle started in 2014 by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, called Associacion Profesional Elite Taxi. It accused Uber of unfair competition: The Uber Pop service used unlicensed drivers and wasn't authorized to carry passengers. Uber, as it always does, claimed it was just an intermediary connecting drivers with passengers. The case moved up the European court hierarchy. The ECJ took the view that, since the Uber app is "indispensable for both the drivers and the persons who wish to make an urban journey" and since "Uber exercises decisive influence over the conditions under which the drivers provide their service," the company provides a transport service, not an information one. European countries must regulate it as such, not as a software developer or an e-commerce operation.