Taxi Driver Online

Obviously not a UK news story, but maybe it's an important one, even post-Brexit. In particular, does this mean that if the UK was still an EU member, the limit on PHV licences in Glasgow (enabled by Scottish Parliament legislation) would be contrary to EU law?

But this seems all about thwarting Uber et al. And the actual quota number is off-the-scale ridiculous, at least by the standards we're used to here - not difficult to spot in the article...


Top EU court rejects Barcelona's ride-hailing restrictions

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 023-06-08/

MADRID, June 8 (Reuters) - The Court of Justice of the European Union rejected on Thursday rules set by the city of Barcelona that dramatically restrict the number of cars working with ride-hailing apps such as Uber (UBER.N).

Barcelona had introduced a series of rules intended to reduce the number of drivers of private cars transporting passengers hired through mobile platforms and fleet owners to protect the interests of taxi services.

But the EU's top court said the justification for the restrictions is contrary to EU law, according to a document sent by the Court.

Restrictions to such businesses can only be imposed to benefit general interests such as the protection of the environment and avoidance of excessive traffic, and not discriminate against specific providers, the court said.

Catalonia's high court will now need to order the city to comply with the EU's ruling.

The EU's ruling could set a precedent for other areas where restrictions have been applied, Jose Manuel Berzal, the spokesman of UNAUTO-VTC, an association of passenger car owners in Spain who work with Uber, its local competitor Cabify and Bolt.

Other regions of Spain such as Balearic Islands and Valencia have similar restrictions and fleet owners have taken legal action there too, he said.

Janet Sanz, Barcelona's urban policy chief, said the ruling "clarifies" how the city has to regulate the business.

The restrictions in Barcelona set a limit to the number of licenses available to private cars transporting passengers to one-thirtieth of the number of taxis. Regulators will now set the number of licenses according to passenger needs, Berzal said.

Mayor Ada Colau, whose administration set the restrictions, lost her re-election bid on May 28, and a new mayor is still to be picked.

Bolt said the ruling will help end the conflicts that have dogged the business over the past ten years and will provide a fair, stable and transparent legal framework for all parties. Uber and Cabify declined to comment.

The enforcement of the restrictions late last year pushed many self-employed drivers and fleet owners in Barcelona out of business.

"It's a great day for us," said Dayana Barrera, who owns a small fleet of cars in Barcelona and was forced to sell some of her cars. "Thousands of families depend on the business."

So there's 214 HCs in Bradford, and 3,256 PHVs

Under the Barcelona quota, only seven PHVs would be allowed to operate

To be fair, the Barcelona market has historically no doubt developed very differently to what we're used to here. I'd guess it's more like many US cities, where only HCs are allowed, and there's no PHV sector at all.

This is the official ECJ press release. Which is in fact quite readable and not too technical in terms of legalese etc, although they do seem to like long, complex sentences. And that ludicrous use of bold type all over the place

In fact, would have posted this instead of the Reuters piece above, but it pasted on here an utter mess, and would have taken ages to make it reasonably presentable.

Anyway, I'm assuming 'taxi' in here refers to what we'd call HCs to avoid confusion, and that PHVs are roughly equivalent to our own. Likewise, I'm assuming it's all about PH *vehicles* rather than maybe operator-type licences, but as usual with this kind of thing, there's a degree of ambiguity about that. For example, the Reuters piece says at the outset that it's *drivers* that were limited, but I'm 100% certain it's either *vehicles*, or maybe operators.


PRESS RELEASE No 93/23
Luxembourg, 8 June 2023

Judgment of the Court in Case C-50/21 | Prestige and Limousine

Limiting the number of private hire vehicle service licences in the Barcelona metropolitan area is contrary to European Union law

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/doc ... 0093en.pdf

By contrast, requiring an additional licence to that provided for at national level may prove necessary for the proper management of transport, traffic and public space, as well as for the protection of the environment.

And not sure if it's ever been tested under EU law, but the above begs the very obvious question...

Surely a limit is a limit, be that of one thirtieth or any thirtieth?

P.S. In the 20 years of TDO the word thirtieth has only been used in two posts.

_________________
IDFIMH

To me, it's quite clear that this would also apply to restricting taxi numbers, and the rationale, to a degree, mirrors what the Law Commission said in their preliminary report before they bottled it in the final version.

_________________
IDFIMH

Yes, that's an interesting response from the local regulator, and seems to conflict with what's in the news release, and doesn't seem to reflect the judgement of the court.

Can't be bothered reading through the news release again (and certainly won't be reading the full judgement), but certainly gives the impression that the court ruled against numerical limits in principle rather than specifically because the number was one thirtieth of taxi numbers.

But these are maybe the most relevant extracts from the press release. And the highlighting is mine rather than the 'communications directorate's' extensive use of bold type

In fact I'd forgotten that the person saying that "regulators will now set the number of licenses according to passenger needs" was some kind of private hire representative rather than the regulator.

This is another quote from a local regulator in another publication, which suggests that even if there's no strict numerical quota, they'll do what the can to thwart the PHVs.


So it's possible that both the poacher and gamekeeper will attempt some other way of controlling PHV expansion. And, I mean, hardly a surprise if a quota-buster in the trade was more than happy to reimpose the quota and raise the drawbridge once they're on the inside. That's never happened before...

If they are worried about pollution and the like, which they never really are they just use that as an excuse, they could require all PH to be electric and/or exec class motors.

A blanket restriction makes no sense for the general populous, only for the vested interests.

_________________
IDFIMH

A bit more here about what's been happening on the ground.

Obviously this is an overseas story (particularly post-Brexit) which I don't normally bother with. But I'd always wondered what EU law would say about HC plate quotas if anyone had ever taken legal action.

Perhaps this case provides the answer...

And I think a VTC is essentially what we'd call a PHV. But spent several minutes of my life trying to find out what VTC stands for, and won't get that back


EU court rejects Spanish cap on private hire cars transporting passengers

https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/cour ... 35-nt.html

The measure, which was introduced in Spain in a bid to protect the economic viability of taxis, has been overturned by European Court of Justice

European authorities have rejected a limitation in Spain which caps the number of private hire vehicles, known as VTCs, such as Uber, Cabify and Bolt, in a major blow for taxis.

The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) on Thursday, 8 June, overturned the measure in force across Spain to protect taxis from competition from VTCs, which established a limit of one for every 30 taxis.

The court based in Luxembourg considered that a cap on granting new VTC permits merely in order to protect taxis, and without being justified by transport, traffic and environmental reasons, is contrary to EU law. It also specified that the economic viability of taxis should not be dependent on the balance between the two forms of urban transport, or a proportion between the two types of licences.

The ruling opens the floodgates for more of this type of vehicle, which have skyrocketed in recent years due to the surging popularity of ride-hailing apps such as Uber, Cabify and Bolt.

Malaga, the province with the most competition

In Malaga, the establishment of 1 VTC for every 30 taxis has been long outdated, due to the liberalisation of the market between 2009 and 2015. There are 2,427 active authorisations for VTCs in the province today, compared to 2,740 active taxi licences - that’s one VTC for every 1.1 taxis.

The new ruling however does not affect other limitation measures, such as the obligation to always operate under prior contract or the ban on approaching areas of high passenger demand such as airports, stations, hotels or shopping centres without being pre-contracted.

The court placed conditions on the requirement for a second regional or municipal authorisation set by the central government to allow VTCs to continue to operate journeys entirely within the same town or city from 1 October last year, by which date the current authorisations were only valid for inter-city services. It does not oppose this second authorisation, already in place in Barcelona, but as long as it is based "on objective criteria" and responds to the "specific needs" of the region.

"The limitation of VTC licences to 1 for every 30 taxi licences does not seem suitable to guarantee the achievement of the objectives of good management of transport, traffic and public space," the CJEU pointed out. "It is possible to adopt less restrictive measures to limit the possible impact of the VTC fleet on transport, traffic and public space," it said, giving as an example "measures to organise VTC services, limitations of these services during certain time slots or even restrictions of circulation in certain areas".

Andalusian rule

In Malaga, as well as other cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, the 1:30 ratio was long forgotten in any case. The sector was liberalised between 2009 and 2015 through a law brought in by the last Socialist government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. in 2013 the PP government tried to curb the increase in VTCs and new legislation came into force in 2015. Since then where the 1:30 ratio was not respected no more licences were able to be granted. However new authorisations have been gradually released as firms won court cases.

On a regional level, on 1 October 2022 a new decree controlling the VTCs came into force, allowing drivers to carry passengers to and from points within the same town or city but prohibiting cars approaching hotels, stations, airports or shopping centres without having a pre-booked passenger to pick up.

Should anyone wish to spend half a day reading it, the judgement can be found below.

https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2023/C5021.html

_________________
IDFIMH

No surprise that the HC sector in the likes of Spain obviously has a lot more clout than in the UK


Spain’s curbs on Uber-style apps face probe over breach of EU law

https://www.ft.com/content/35030cdc-503 ... ce0562faed

Ride-hailing groups fighting to unlock potential growth market complain over new rules protecting the taxi industry

Brussels has begun a preliminary probe into whether moves by the Spanish government to protect the taxi industry by limiting private hire services such as Uber, Bolt and Cabify breach European law.

Ride-hailing apps have been fighting for years to unlock the Spanish market, one of their largest sources of untapped growth in Europe, in the face of repeated attempts by city authorities to limit the number of licences available to private hire vehicles.

The EU’s inquiry, or “pilot procedure”, is in response to industry complaints over fresh curbs that Spain’s national government introduced last month on the transport apps. Madrid set “environmental and traffic management criteria” as part of those regulations, designating the traditional taxi industry a “public interest service”.

These latest measures from Madrid came days after a European Court of Justice ruling that appeared to mark a breakthrough for the app makers. The ECJ ruled on June 8 against the city of Barcelona, finding that its restrictions on ride-hailing services were “contrary to European law”, in part because they were designed to insulate regular cabs from new app-based competition.

Feneval, an industry group representing the ride-hailing companies, this month wrote to the EU transport commissioner arguing that the latest measures, enacted by royal decree in the run-up to the July 23 Spanish election, were a “clear breach” of the ECJ ruling. The group demanded an “infringement proceeding” against the country.

According to the EU’s response to Feneval, which has been seen by the Financial Times, this initial probe was seeking to “better understand Spain’s reasoning” regarding a number of rules concerning taxis and private hire vehicles in the country.

An EU official confirmed that the commission had received “several letters” from industry and was “already in dialogue with Spanish authorities about how their approach is in line” with Article 49 of the EU treaty, as part of a “broader assessment” of Spanish law in this area.

However, a spokesperson for the Spanish transport ministry said they were not aware of any investigation by Brussels. The new regulation “focuses on proportionality, fair competition, and the protection of the general interest and the environment”, the ministry said.

New private hire vehicle licences will be “subject to compliance with criteria aimed at improving air quality, reducing emissions, and managing traffic and public spaces” in the local authorities that are responsible for granting them, the ministry added.

A pilot procedure is an initial probe that can form the first stages of more formal infringement proceedings against an EU member state, though the commission’s inquiries do not always go further. Inquiries into the Spanish law had already begun before the ECJ’s ruling, the commission said, but it will now also assess the royal decree.

“These answers should help commission services to assess whether these rules are in breach of article 49,” officials at the transport commissioner’s office wrote.

Restrictions on ride-hailing apps have put Spain, alongside Japan and Italy, among the toughest markets in the world for services such as Uber. A relaxation of what the tech platforms described in their letter to the EU as “disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions” on their operations could provide a valuable source of growth.

While Spain is facing the EU probe, authorities in Italy have received criticism for long queues at taxi ranks at airports and stations during the recent heatwave, adding pressure on them to grant more licences to private hire vehicles.