SP: Court of Justice suspends Uber app services

The São Paulo Court of Justice Suspended Uber app service this Wednesday. On April 8, taxi drivers made a protest against the app in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other cities in the country.

Judge Roberto Corcioli Filho, from the Twelfth Civil Court of the São Paulo Court of Justice, ordered the suspension of the service of the Uber, accepting a request from the Union of Drivers and Workers in Taxi Companies in the State of São Paulo.

The application registers private cars and offers paid rides for non-professional drivers, so many people stopped ordering taxis to use these vehicles, as they are cheaper. Therefore, drivers Uber and other applications that emerged with the same purpose are called, by the taxi drivers union, “clandestine taxis”.

Uber operates in more than 300 cities in 56 countries and offers the service of passenger transport in private cars.

The application has generated disputes over the legality of the service in several countries and was even banned in India after a passenger was raped by a driver.

The application

Launched in the United States, Uber entered Brazil through Rio de Janeiro, in May of last year, and a month later it was also made available in São Paulo.

It works very similarly to taxi apps already common in Brazil: the customer says where he is, requests the car and the driver decides, without intermediaries, whether to accept the transport.

The difference is that it appears as a “vip” alternative to the transport of passengers. Only luxury cars operate through the app, usually in black.

ppgad@pucrs.br