[yawaworht1978]

I have paid the ridiculous charge from Rome's airport to the city, it's interesting how many measures airports like Rome, Madrid, Barcelona have to take to keep Uber out as good as possible. I still agree with the Dutch court. First, EU has a goal to somewhat harmonize some laws and taxes. Europe should not simply allow any company to come along and undermine everything. If Europe let's this happen, the consequence is very simple, in case the drivers don't make ends meet, they will claim it from social services, making me the guy who pays for that. So taxpayers are subsidiaries to uebers shenanigans, no thanks. I support the European tax system and social policies, but I am not gonna pay the SV salaries for some "wise guys", I prefer the taxes invested in infrastructure, health care, the useful things, including pensions.if I would prefer the US model, I would go and live there.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

It's probably worth noting that the EU has nothing to do with this. These are policies of individual countries, EU has very little if anything to do with taxes, pensions or health care.

[yawaworht1978]

It's true that the EU has no federal executive body, however, no country can simply go and set corporate taxes to 0 without an uproar. the cross border phone network is unified for example. The were Cyprus and Malta selling passports to the highest bidders without due diligence done,kickbacks and honey traps, you name it, it happened. https://euobserver.com/justice/149810

There is a limit on how much can and can't be done within the EU, it's not a gravy train buffet. There is peer pressure and potential, let's call it cascading effect. Some lawmaker will hear about this and try to get it passed in another country as well. I struggle to think of one state which would simply accept Uber as some great Enterprise idea, look at the history here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_ridesharing_comp... Most places banned and this bit. In December 2017, the European Court of Justice ruled that Uber is a transport company, subject to local transport regulation in European Union member states, rather than an information society service as Uber had argued.[99]

So at best, tolerated for the time being.

In Europe, working without full compensation is typically called illicit work(instead of side gig), not extremely frowned upon, but the main job has to have proper compensation. It very normal and expected to get 4 weeks paid holidays or more, sick days covered, insurance in most places, pension contributions etc. Uber tells you to get a car, petrol, pay insurance and take jobs when available, and get none of the above, who are they kidding.

[crote]

A bit off-topic, but why would you take a taxi for that trip? A train to the city leaves evert 15 minutes and costs you only €14. By car it's a 30km ride!

This is true for basically every single European city. Public transport is of such high quality that taking a taxi simply doesn't make sense.

[yawaworht1978]

Was cold after cross continent flight and just missed the train by a few minutes, was also pretty late, place looked abandoned, had a bit too much luggage and had no idea how to get to my destination. Any other circumstances, I would take the train.

[maccolgan]

Why yes let's just remove the ability of people to take a market-priced car ride... Have you considered the private space that a car affords? (albeit shared with the driver)

[bserge]

> claim it from social services

You say it like they just walk in, ask for money and get it. It's really much harder, practically impossible if you're not on some priority list (with kids, disability, single mother, etc).

[yawaworht1978]

I know, it takes time to claim it, and this actually infuriates me even more, because all the cla procedures are handled by expensive government staff, of course this is due to security checks, to exclude fraudulent claims. All paid for by taxpayers so Uber can burn another buck(they're still never profitable are they, tells me everything about the business model). The good thing is, once it works, it works.