Uber fights for London license renewal in UK court appeal
LONDON -- Facing expulsion from its largest European markets, lawyers for the ride-hailing app Uber are heading to an appeals court hearing on Monday, hoping to overturn a decision by London authorities not to renew the company's license to operate there.
Last fall, Uber's license was not renewed by the municipal regulator Transport for London (TFL) after deeming the service unsafe for the public. The company have been allowed to operate until its fate is decided by the appeal.
Uber’s appeal hearing, which will consider if the company is “fit and proper” to operate in London, starts today and is expected to take several day before a decision is made - though the court battle itself could takes years to finally be resolved.
TFL took issue with the way UBER handled criminal offenses committed by its drivers and the manner in which some of their criminal and medical records were presented in order to bypass official checks.
Since TFL’s decision not renew Uber’s license the company has gone to great lengths to make significant changes, acknowledging its blunders.
An Uber spokeswoman, Alana Saltzman, told ABC News in an email “it was too early” to comment on what they expected from the appeals hearing. But Saltzman listed a number of changes she said the company has instituted that she believes will alleviate London authorities' concerns.
She said those new changes include:
Last month Uber’s UK General Manager wrote to TFL outlining the investigations it had conducted and providing details about the number of drivers that had committed offenses and those that have been banned.
Uber has had problems with its licenses in a number of other British cities, but London is its largest target market in Europe.
