French police have raided the Paris offices of the taxi app firm Uber as part of ongoing investigations into its UberPOP peer-to-peer ride-sharing service, reports The Guardian.
The investigation, at the behest of Paris’ prosecutors office, comes after France’s interior ministry vowed to ban the app from January 1st 2015.
The UberPOP service, unlike other models of service on the app, connects non-professional drivers with users at a lower price. In France, the base rate (minimum fare) is set at just 1euro (72p).
The service uses non-professional drivers who may not be licensed or insured, raising safety concerns. Some have poor local knowledge so potentially offer a poor customer experience.
Uber France boss Thibaud Simphal called the raid a “disproportionate action carried out on a very fragile legal basis” in comments to L’Obs magazine.
Uber says the firm is creating jobs (founder Travis Kalanick has pledged to create 50,000 in Europe, and 1 million jobs for women by 2020) and that competition is good for the industry.
Uber defines UberPOP as a ride-sharing service – similar to rival app Lyft – but the fact that money changes hands and the user sets the destination rather undermines that definition.
In October 2014 the firm was fined 100,000 euros (£72,000) by a Paris court for “deceptive practices” in relation to its advertising and promotion.
The Silicon Valley-based firm, part-owned by Google, has come under fire all over the world and has been subject to numerous legal challenges and protests.
In December, although a Paris court found against a civil suit from competitors attempting to shut UberPOP down, the French interior ministry spokesman later called the service illegal and dangerous.
In December 2014, the app was temporarily suspended in Spain after a complaint was brought by the Madrid Taxi Association. It was also banned in September 2014 in Germany after complaints from Taxi Deutschland.
The company was suspended in Delhi, India, after a woman was allegedly raped by a driver last year. Service was resumed in January of this year.