Uber suspends its controversial UberPOP service in France after violent protests

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Registered taxi drivers claim 'ride-sharing' app is unfair competition
It effectively allows anyone with a car to become a taxi driver
Bosses Thibaud Simphal and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty arrested this week
Charged with illegal operation of a taxi service with trial due in September

Published: 07:40 EST, 3 July 2015 | Updated: 08:31 EST, 3 July 2015

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Taxi app Uber is to suspend its controversial UberPOP service in France following the arrests of two of its top executives and violent protests which brought Paris and other cities to a standstill.

The service, which effectively allows anyone with a car to become a taxi driver, was banned by the French government, at the end of last year.

However the app was not taken off-line and the service continued to operate to the fury of registered taxi drivers who claimed it was unfair competition.

Offline: Taxi-booking app Uber has suspended its controversial UberPOP service in France following a wave of violent protests and the arrests of two of its top executives

Earlier this week two of Uber's top French executives were arrested as part of an ongoing probe into the app which was created by two Californian entrepreneurs who had the idea after becoming frustrated while trying to hail a cab in Paris.

Thibaud Simphal, manager of Uber France, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, general manager for western Europe, were detained as part of the investigation that earlier led to Uber's offices being raided by police in March.

Thibaud Simphal, General Director of Uber France, was one of two executives to be arrested this week

The pair will go on trial in September charged with carrying out deceitful commercial practices, being complicit in illegal operation of a taxi service by providing drivers with means to do so and encouraging them to and keeping and using personal data without authorisation by France's data privacy watchdog.

Mr Simphal, head of Uber France, told Le Monde: 'We have decided to suspend UberPOP in France from 2000 (1800 GMT) this Friday evening, primarily to assure the safety of Uber drivers.

'The second reason is that we want to create a spirit of reconciliation and dialogue with public authorities to show we are acting responsibly'.

A French law from October 2014 already placed a ban on putting clients in touch with unregistered drivers with apps such as UberPOP. But Uber has contested the rule, saying it is counter to the right to freedom to do business.

UberPOP has been banned in France since January 1, with drivers risking up to a year in prison and a €15,000(£10,600) fine, but the law has proved difficult to enforce and it continues to operate.

To avoid detection by police and confrontations with rival taxi drivers, Uber drivers have reportedly started asking their passengers to sit in the front seat.

Uber has provoked protests by taxi drivers from London to New Delhi as it upends traditional business models that require professional drivers to pay often steep fees for licences to operate cabs.

The controversial service, which effectively allows anyone with a car to become a taxi driver, has sparked a wave of protests in cities across the world including Marseille (pictured)

Flashpoint: Riot police officers take cover by an overturned car during anti-Uber protests in Paris last week

Taxi drivers in France pay income tax and welfare charges and, depending on their location, sometimes have to pay hundreds of thousands of euros for an operating licence. They argue they face unfair competition from unlicenced drivers who have no such outgoings and so can undercut them on price.

Last week France saw violent protests across several cities as taxi drivers took to the streets to complain about UberPOP which they say threatens their livelihoods.

In Paris, police in riot gear used tear gas to disperse the protesters who had blocked road access to airports and train stations in Paris and other cities.

French taxi drivers block the access to Orly airport, south of Paris, France, during a national protest against car-sharing service Uber last week

A striking taxi drives past burning tyres during a national protest against car-sharing service Uber in Nice, last week

French media showed images of burning tyres blocking part of the ring road around central Paris, as well as scuffles between protesting cabbies and other drivers, while police in riot gear at one point intervened using tear gas.

Taxi drivers also blocked access to Paris' Gare du Nord train station, from where the high-speed Eurostar and Thalys services run to London and Brussels.

Cabbies set up barriers around Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, including at key motorway exits, and blocked access to train stations in the two cities. They were also protesting on the main access to Marseilles-Provence airport.