Uber Wins Case In London

Yesterday Uber received some very good news. A judge decided that the court was satisfied with process improvements made by the company with regards to its London licence. A new licence has been issued with 21 conditions for the next 18 months.

This comes after a big battle with the city which led to Transport for London refusing to renew Uber's licence in 2017. The city was not satisfied with Uber's ability to regulate who became an Uber driver. There were also many incidences of non-licensed drivers using licensed drivers cars for a fee. Naturally, as a platform, it is Uber's responsibility to make sure the platform is not taken advantage of.

This is good news on two fronts. London is Uber's 5th biggest market with 45 000 drivers and 3.5 million users. It also means that Uber has cleaned up its act to satisfy one of its biggest critics. They will be able to use these methods throughout their platform.

Regulation has always been a big threat for ride-hailing apps as old school taxis push back against change. This is a huge step in the right direction towards making ride-hailing apps the rule, not the exception. The Uber share price closed up 3.2%. It is now only 10% away from its listing price after being as much as 30% lower in March. Uber is a peripheral Vestact stock but we are still happy to endorse clients own it if they wish to do so.