[naskwo]

IANAL, but it is likely that Uber has a good shot to appeal this at the EU level:

This ruling is rather incongruent with the recent Airbnb ruling (1) where Airbnb was ruled to be nothing more than an "information society service". (Rant: you could apply this label to anything from a public library to a sadistic secret service.)

Comparable to Uber, Airbnb makes money per transaction, yet claims it is no more than an information medium.

I used to operate several large classifieds sites in the Netherlands, and am rather certain that as soon as the platform starts collecting per-transaction fees, it becomes part of the transaction, as it is in fact a broker between two parties.

In my (consumer) view: Uber adds value and convenience to a city and threatens an inefficient and monopolistic status quo (at least here in the Netherlands), whereas Airbnb turns housing into business cases, for better of for worse (and in Amsterdam: for worse).

1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/19/eu-court-...