Uber loses another case in front of the CJEU
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a ruling stating that EU member states ‘may prohibit and punish the illegal exercise of a transport activity such as UberPop without having the notify the Commission in advance of the draft legislation laying down criminal penalties for the exercise of such an activity’. The judgement was issued in response to a question from the CJEU by the Tribunal de grand instance de Lille (France) concerning a case brought forward by Uber France. In France, authorities have brought criminal law proceedings against Uber for its UberPop service operating with non-professional drivers. Uber France claimed that it could not be prosecuted, because France should have notified the European Commission about the legislation on which the criminal proceedings against the company are based. Uber argued the French authorities did not comply with an EU directive which states that member states have to notify the Commission of any draft legislation or rules establishing technical regulations on information society services. The CJEU, however, ruled that the UberPop service does not fall under the scope of the EU directive, referring to its previous decision from December 2017 that the UberPop service offered in Spain was a transportation service and not an information society service.