Another skirmish of the Barcelona taxi war. The Generalitat de Catalunya dismisses the property claim filed mainly by owners of vehicles with VTC licenses who are used to working with the applications of the large digital platforms.
We are talking about a dozen fleets that claim 28,489,235.43 euros from the regional administration. These businessmen understand that the entry into force of the decree law of the year 2019, which basically establishes that rental vehicles with drivers must be hired at least a quarter of an hour in advance, causes them these losses.
At the end of February, the Supreme Court confirmed the nullity of the measures that the Government of the Basque Country contemplated in a decree approved in 2019 to regulate the activity of these services, such as the obligation to contract 30 minutes in advance or the prohibition of their geolocation . In this way, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber has ratified the resolutions that the Superior Court of Justice issued in June 2021, in which it partly agreed with Uber, and annulled the articles referring to these demands.
The regulation of the Generalitat in question also establishes that vehicles with VTC authorizations may not circulate in any case on public roads in search of customers, nor encourage the recruitment of passengers who had not previously contracted the service, so that they must remain parked. In addition, the text prohibits geolocation that allows customers to locate available vehicles before hiring them, since it is considered that this system promotes passenger acquisition.
The complainants consider that these requirements violate the sole transitory provision of Royal Decree-Law 13/2018. They interpret that this provision legitimizes them to continue providing the urban service for a period of four years under the same conditions in which it was provided before it came into force. The outbreak of the pandemic delayed the processing of this claim considerably.
The final news was fully expected by these businessmen. They already contemplated that the Generalitat would most likely not disavow its own regulation so easily. In truth, this claim was one more step in order to appear before the courts as an injured party in a more convincing way and demand substantial compensation.
Owners of VTC licenses also have in their sights the decree law that obliges them, among other things, to offer vehicles of 4.9 meters in length. The next skirmishes will take place in judicial instances. A study by Ernst Consulting
