Advised Uber in ECJ Dispute Against Several Member States

In December 2017, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") ruled in the disputes between Uber and several Member States regarding alleged infringement of Articles 106/102 TFEU. Uber argued that efforts by national governments, following complaints by incumbent taxi drivers and certain private hire vehicles (PHV), to erect regulatory barriers or to shut down its application breached EU laws on competition and the single market. The ECJ ruled that Uber qualifies as a transport company and should, therefore, abide by national transportation rules.

Compass Lexecon provided economic analysis to support Uber in its complaints to the European Commission against several Member States (Spain, France, and Germany). In particular, we assessed market definition to address the question of whether Uber qualifies as a digital service provider or should be considered as a transport company.

Our team included Miguel de la Mano, Enrique Andreu, Damien Neven, Vilen Lipatov, Francisco Franchetti, and Anastasia Tseomashko.