Taxi-hailing app Uber was raided by French police as part of an investigation into its ride-sharing service, according to The Telegraph.
The headquarters of the French branch of the US-based company was targeted by officers at the request of the Paris prosecutor's office.
At least 25 officers raided the headquarters for six hours on Monday, seizing emails and documents from 45 employees and smartphones used by Uber drivers, according to France Info.
The raid comes as part of a long investigation into UberPop's services, which puts Uber drivers in touch with passengers through their mobile phones for cheap rides around town. Its fares can be more than a third less than regular taxi costs and similar to UberX, its American counterpart.
UberPop is technically illegal in France, but Uber has appealed a hefty fine it received last year and still hopes to reach some sort of deal with the local government.
Uber has already commented on the raid, calling it an "attempt at intimidation," according to The Telegraph.
More than 250 drivers to UberPop have been fined since the beginning of the year. UberPop was banned by the French government back on Jan. 1 for not meeting a licensing requirement.
"We see this raid as a disproportionate action carried out on a very fragile legal basis," Uber France boss Thibaud Simphal said to the website of L'Obs magazine.
A few weeks ago, hundreds of taxi drivers from Belgium and France protested against Uber, using their vehicles to bring central Brussels to almost a complete standstill. About 100 taxi drivers took part in the protest to voice their frustration with the company, which has cost them a lot of money in recent years.
Despite all the issues, nothing has deterred Uber founder Travis Kalanick's plan to create 50,000 new jobs in Europe this year. He also hopes to take some 400,000 vehicles off the road by convincing drivers to use Uber vehicles to get around instead.
Uber has also been banned in other places like Brazil, Germany, Thailand and Spain.
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