High Court rules minicab-hailing app Uber is lawful
The minicab-hailing app Uber is lawful, a High Court judge has ruled.
Transport for London (TfL) had sought clarification as to whether the smartphone app breaks the law by operating in the same way as meters used by more strictly regulated black cabs to calculate fares.
Section 11 (1) of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, bars all private hire cars from being "equipped" with taximeters.
In a decisive ruling in favour of Uber, Mr Justice Ouseley declared that taximeters do not operate in the same way as the app.
He said they did not depend on GPS signals and include the app's other new tech characteristics to calculate fares.
The San Francisco-based company records a car's location and the journey time via smartphone and feeds the information to servers in California, and the fare is calculated and relayed back to driver and passenger.
London is one of the world's major cities where Uber has caused controversy and triggered legal battles.
The ruling was a clear victory for TfL and Uber, who had argued at a one-day hearing earlier this month that the app was not a meter and therefore not unlawful.
The Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA), which represents a substantial proportion of the 25,000 licensed taxi drivers in London, asked the judge to rule it was a meter and ban its use.
The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) backed the LTDA and said the app is "an attempt to circumvent the statutory prohibition" on minicabs using meters.
Black cab drivers say the app poses a risk to public safety and customers being overcharged, with no opportunity to challenge fares before the money is automatically taken out of their bank accounts.
Government figures show the number of minicabs in the capital has risen by over a quarter (26%) in the past two years, to 62,800.
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