The judgment originates from an action brought in 2014 by a professional cab driver' association in Barcelona, looking for a statement from that court that Uber's activities in Spain, totaled up to misleading practices and acts of unreasonable competition. Uber had actually argued that it was an intermediation service, assisting people to make contact with each other digitally.
In its ruling, the court specified:
"The Court takes the view, to start with, that the service supplied by Uber is more than an intermediation service including linking, by ways of a smartphone application, a nonprofessional motorist utilizing his or her own vehicle with an individual who wants to make an urban journey. Undoubtedly, in this situation, the company of that intermediation service simultaneously provides metropolitan transportation services, which it renders accessible, in specific, through software application tools and whose general operation it arranges for the benefit of persons who wish to accept that deal in order to make a city journey.
"The Court notes because regard that the application offered by Uber is important for both the chauffeurs and the individuals who wish to make an urban journey. It likewise mentions that Uber workouts decisive influence over the conditions under which the drivers provide their service. Therefore, the Court discovers that intermediation service need to be concerned as forming an integral part of a total service whose primary component is a transportation service and, accordingly, need to be classified not as 'an information society service' but as 'a service in the field of transport'.
"The Court specifies that, consequently, the regulation on electronic commerce does not use to that service, which is also omitted from the scope of the regulation on services in the internal market. For the same reason, the service in question is covered not by the flexibility to provide services in basic however by the common transportation policy.While Uber argues that today's ruling will have little effect on the way it runs, since it currently follows local licensing laws in many European markets, it is most likely to have ramifications for other business running in the so-called 'gig economy'. If they can prove they are providing an 'info society service' they can avoid needing to comply with nationwide licensing laws. Today's judgment recommends this may be more challenging than they previously believed.
Source
http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/uber-is-a-transport-service-european-court-of-justice-rules
source http://taxi.nearme.host/uber-is-a-transportation-service-european-court-of-justice-rules/
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