Uber won a favorable decision on Thursday from London's transit agency following accusations that the car-sharing service violated city regulations.
Transport for London sided with Uber, a ride service that works through a mobile app, dismissing taxi drivers' claims that Uber is operating in violation of transportation regulations, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
London taxi drivers protested Uber last month by blockading roads around Trafalgar Square. They accuse the service of violating prohibitions by using "taximeter" technology and not being licensed black-car drivers; however, Tfl determined that running the Uber app on a smartphone does not constitute "taximeters within the meaning of the legislation."
Cabbies have expressed concern that Uber will become a monopoly.
"If they decimate the cab trade and minicab trade in London and just have one tier of 'taxi'--which is actually just a car--and that's the Uber tier, then what the public will get is price surges," Grant Davis of the trade group the London Cab Drivers' Club, told CNET in May. "When it's raining, the cab you used to get home from the club will have doubled in price, but you have to pay what you have to pay because no one's left standing."
Uber has a reprieve for now, but the taximeter question won't be officially settled until the fall. London's Licensed Taxi Drivers Association has brought cases against six Uber drivers it accuses of violating city regulations, something a court will rule on later this year.
Uber and similar car-sharing services have run into trouble in America as well. Both Uber and Lyft, one of its rivals, were ordered this week to stop operations in Pittsburgh until the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission grants permission.
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease and desist letters to Uber and Lyft last month, saying the services are operating without proper permits and violating state law.
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