Uber - Have they caught a taxi out of the woods?

On Tuesday 26^th June a two day Appeal hearing concluded in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court permitting Uber, the ride-hailing app, to continue to trade in London for a further 15 month ‘probationary’ period.

Although the case had been expected to last for several more days District Judge Arbuthnot ruled that Uber were a “fit and proper” person to hold an operating licence.  This followed a decision by Transport for London ‘TFL’ (who are responsible for issuing licences) to refuse to renew Uber’s original licence last September (2017).  Although the licence renewal was initially refused, Uber has continued to trade in the interim after lodging their Appeal, in accordance with the provision of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998.

In a BBC article on Monday Tom de la Mare QC, representing Uber, was quoted as addressing the Court that the firm had taken the "unusual" stance of not opposing TfL's reasons for not renewing the licence.

He is reported as having said: "We accept TfL's decision in September was the right decision on the evidence at the time.".  This was followed by representations on how Uber had reformed and addressed those issues of concern. Uber referenced in their statements to the Court successful inspections which had been completed between September and the Appeal as evidence of new practices working and addressing the concerns of TFL. 

The Appellant agreed to pay TFL’s legal expenses for the Appeal reported to be £425,000.

In the original decision those reasons were listed to include:

• Its approach to reporting serious criminal offences.
• Its approach to how medical certificates are obtained.
• Its approach to how Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are obtained.
• Its approach to explaining the use of Greyball in London - software that could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app and prevent officials from undertaking regulatory or law enforcement duties.

In her oral Judgement DJ Arbuthnot accepted that TFL decisions were driven by their clear priority to ensure public safety. 

Although a 5 year licence was initially sought by Uber this shorter licence was agreed.