France bans rideshare apps like Uber

Deutsche Welle ^ | 15.12.2014 | Jasper Niels Zimmermann [nz/sb (AFP, dpa)]

[Olog-hai]

French taxi drivers have succeeded in persuading the French government to ban rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. A harsh new law takes effect in January. The move is good for taxi drivers, but will cost consumers money. […]

Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Interior […] said that as of January 1, the operators of mobile apps like UberPOP that connect non-professional drivers and riders would face punishment of up to two years in prison and a fine of €300,000 if convicted. Those provisions were specified under a new law that had been passed earlier this year, but that had not yet entered into force. […]

UberPOP has already been banned in Spain and the Netherlands. It is also under legal attack in several other countries, including Denmark and Norway. …

[NurdlyPeon]

Right now I'm just going with ‘wait and see’. Right now there is plenty of dust and hype about this thing, but I think at some point certain social and economic realities are going to start setting in, starting with ‘there's no free lunch’ and ending with ‘you get what you pay for’. You can argue pretty sounding philosophies with liberals all day long, but that doesn't tell you about the actual long term results of their policies. Right now, the ‘right wing’ is all a-twitter with ‘free market’ blah blah blah indignation, but let's just see what happens with time and real life.

[napscoordinator]

All the rapes don’t help their cause any.

[M Kehoe]

Good points, especially the one about the statue.

5.56mm

[Dr. Sivana]

I would much rather get into a car with some kid who is out cruising on a Saturday night looking for shortys.

That might depend on why you were hanging out at a bar alone until 2AM in the first place.

[SamAdams76]

Also, California now produces better wines than France!