"Uber to face stricter EU regulation after ECJ rules it is transport firm", 20 Dec 2017

Uber is a transport services company, the European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled, requiring it to accept stricter regulation and licensing within the EU as a taxi operator. The decision in Luxembourg, after a challenge brought by taxi drivers in Barcelona, will apply across the whole of the EU, including the UK. It cannot be appealed against.

Uber had denied it was a transport company, arguing instead it was a computer services business with operations that should be subject to an EU directive governing e-commerce and prohibiting restrictions on the establishment of such organisations...

Responding to claims that the ECJ decision would damage its stance in other employment cases, an Uber spokesperson said: “Uber in the UK has always operated and been regulated under transportation law as a licensed private hire operator so this ruling does not change things here. The ECJ case is about how individual EU member states regulate peer-to-peer services, not about employment law...

But [...] the general secretary of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, which represents Uber drivers, said: “Today’s judgment made clear, as a matter of law...: Uber provides transportation services, not technology services.

“This is one more nail in the coffin for Uber’s argument that it is simply an agent acting on behalf of drivers, and therefore not liable to pay them minimum wage and holidays.”