Uber suspends services in France following authorities’ crackdown on controversial Uber Pop
Uber has suspended its Uber Pop services in France, a week after French authorities began cracking down on the company's cab service.
Thibaud Simphal, head of Uber France, has announced that the controversial service will be suspended starting 8pm tonight, Le Figaro reports.
The company says the move was made in a “spirit of appeasement” with the French authorities.
Uber Pop, which allows non-professional drivers to accept bookings at a particularly low cost, has been met by massive protests from taxi drivers about “unfair competition”. Last week, cab drivers blocked roads to airports and stations with cars and burning tyres.
This is hardly the first time that Uber has met with controversy and protests. London black cab drivers have also staged protests, and Uber is currently being investigated by French authorities, who are looking into the legality of Uber Pop.
A week ago 200 extra police officers were deployed onto Paris’s streets to crack down on “illegal” taxi activities.
Two Uber executives, Thibaud Simphal and general manager for Western Europe Pierre-Dimitry Gore-Coty, are to stand trial over the service later this summer.