The Barcelona metropolitan taxi is high with the imminent approval of the government decree law which will return the VTC licenses to its archaic business of exclusive private services. In February 2019 they already managed to upload to Uber with the obligation to hire rental vehicles with driver with 15 minutes in advanceand now, with the minimum vehicle requirement of 4.90 meters, it is Cabify who is on the ropes. This Thursday they have taken another step in their campaign against what they consider “mafia and criminal companies” with a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), whose president, Cani Fernandez, In the past, she was a lawyer for Uber at a time when the multinational was in the midst of a European and legal crusade against taxis.
There have been about 150 (there are about 13,000 taxi drivers), a figure that is nevertheless sufficient for a group that knows how to attract attention (they have printed and launched thousands of banknotes of two dollars with the face of Fernandez), how to make noise (firecrackers, firecrackers and megaphones) and how to synthesize the message. In the latter he has returned to exhibit gallons Titus Alvarezthe spokesman for Elite Taxithe organization that has been dominating the scene in the guild for five years, with the permission of other associations such as the Taxi Union of Catalonia, Taxi Companys, Pak Taxi or Anget. “We ask for the immediate dismissal of this lady, we even believe that there may be briefcases involved. THE CNMC is the armed wing of these multinationals that harass the right to housing, the ‘riders’ or the taxi drivers. Are all the same shit And we have to finish them off.”
“Fucking Illegal”
In addition to the decree law of the Government, which will be approved thanks to the favorable vote of the PSC in Parliament, the taxi has in its favor the recent Uber internal files leak that show that the company was aware that its way of entering the cities was little less than, according to its own directors, “fucking illegal“. How they got it has a lot to do with their alleged links with certain public officials, including the French president Emmanuel Macroneither Neelie Kroesformer Vice President and former European Commissioner for Competition and Digital Agenda.
As for “fucking illegal”, Barcelona was a good example of this, since Uber landed in the Catalan capital in mid-2014 with the uberPOP servicewhich turned any citizen with a private car into a taxi driver. No license, no insurance without the necessary training. Any. In this case, it is only fair to remind you that those responsible for the company in Spain have reiterated that it was a unlucky start. A mistake. They have tried to bite the Barcelona market on a couple of more occasions. So far, without much luck.
Acco Earrings
Álvarez has recalled that he himself, together with the associations Elite Taxi and TaxiProject 2.0 They have a sanctioning file opened by the Catalan Competition Authority (Acco)which investigates possible “aggressive practices or acts of denigration“so that taxi drivers in the metropolitan area do not work with Uber. Given the latest information about the company based in the United States, the leader of the union has demanded that the file be closed, which could lead to a fine of up to two million euros. The matter was opened in January and the Acco, which in 2019 already positioned itself against the first decree of the Government that regulated the VTCs, has since then 18 months to try to deliberate if the attitude of the union towards the interests of Uber threatens the free competition.
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On the accusation of having intimidated taxi drivers so that they do not work with Uber, Álvarez appeals to “freedom of expression”. “Each taxi driver freely chooses who he wants to work with, and if Uber, after seven years of peer bullying from all over the world, now says that four taxi drivers are stopping them, that a judge should come down and see him”. In short: “They won’t shut us up“. The Acco, through a statement made public in January, explains that the initiation of the file “in no case prejudge the final resolution“. His work, he defends, is limited to “explaining the fundamental aspects of the matter and does not involve taking a position” for his part. “Neither on the facts indicated nor on the responsibility, not even provisional, of the allegedly infringing entities“.
But the thing does not stop there. Perhaps pushed by the rush of the recent decree and the leaks about Uber, Álvarez has announced that they are studying taking legal action against the company for espionagefalse accusations and threats. It will certainly continue.