The High Court has ruled that Uber’s ‘app’ is legal after a challenge from transport regulator Transport for London.
Representing London’s black cab and minicab drivers, TfL claimed that taxi service, Uber was using the app as a taximeter which is only allowed by black cab drivers following their extensive training.
But Lord Justice Ouseley said that while the smartphone with the app may calculate the fares, it was not a device ‘for’ calculating fares which would breach the taximeter regulations.
He ruled that: "A taximeter, for the purposes of section 11 of the Private Hire Vehicles Act 1998 does not include a device that receives GPS signals in the course of a journey, and forwards GPS data to a server located outside of the vehicle, which server calculates a fare that is partially or wholly determined by reference to distance travelled and time taken and sends the fare information back to the device."
Jo Bertram, Uber’s regional general manager for UK, Ireland and the Nordics told the Guardian: "Now the high court has ruled in favour of new technology, we hope Transport for London will think again on their bureaucratic proposals for apps like Uber.
"Compulsory five-minute waits and banning ride-sharing would be bad for riders and drivers. These plans make no sense. That’s why 130,000 people have already signed our petition against these proposals. We hope TfL will listen to Londoners and let Uber keep London moving."
