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UK High Court: Uber Is Legal in London

Judge rules a smartphone isn't a taximeter.
London black cabs protest Uber in 2014. Image: David Holt/Flickr

Uber is legal in London. The taxi app has been working in the city for around three years, but whether it actually follows regulations has been the centre of a legal challenge that could have required Uber to change how it works in the British capital. This morning, however, the UK's High Court confirmed that Uber complies with the law.

The issue boiled down to a simple question: Does Uber's smartphone app, which uses GPS and calculates fares on external servers, constitute a taximeter? In London, only black cabs are allowed to use taximeters—devices in vehicles that work out fares based on distance and time travelled.

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After disputes with black cab and minicab organisations, local government body Transport for London (TfL) said it did not think Uber's app counted as a taximeter but asked the High Court to make a declaration to "establish legal certainty."

Mr. Justice Ousely stated in his judgment that smartphones did not count as taximeters under law.

"A taximeter, for the purposes of Section 11 of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, is not a device which receives GPS signals in the course of a journey, and forwards GPS data to a server located outside of the vehicle, which calculates a fare that is partially or wholly determined by reference to distance travelled and time taken, and sends the fare information back to the device," he wrote.

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), which represents black cabs, tweeted that it had lodged an appeal and did not seem happy with the decision.

The law really is an Ass! It uses time & distance to calculate fare and it's not a meter????
— The LTDA (@TheLTDA) October 16, 2015

The ruling means Uber can continue to operate as usual, and won't need to make changes to how it operates—yet.

Despite the favourable ruling, Uber still faces potential stricter regulations from TfL, which is discussing proposals for new rules on private hire vehicles like Uber. These could include requiring private hire vehicles like Uber to give passengers details of their ride five minutes before it arrives, and preventing operators from showing cars available to hire in an app.

In response to this morning's ruling, Jo Bertram, Uber's regional general manager for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, said in a statement that,"This is great news for Londoners and a victory for common sense. Now the High Court has ruled in favour of new technology, we hope Transport for London will think again on their bureaucratic proposals for apps like Uber. Compulsory five-minute waits and banning ride-sharing would be bad for riders and drivers."

TfL said that it welcomed new technology and business models that give customers more choice, but that, "At the same time, as the regulator, we must ensure that regulatory requirements are met and are developed in a way that delivers the high standards customers deserve."