June 22, 2016
Breaking news
It is sometimes argued that the competitive freedom will destroy the "old regulated world", platforms being the perfect example of this fresh wind, the invention of the adjective "disruptive" which could express a "novelty" before which it is only suitable to bow.
It would be therefore necessary to smile or even laugh, what would be a "rearguard battle" when the Conseil Constitutionnel (French Constitutional Council) in a decision of 22 May 2014 had limited the expansion of Uber, protecting the correspondingly monopoly holders of a municipal taxi license.
But in the US, cities adopt regulations. So on the next city council of the city of Chicago, will be proposed the vote of an order to compel the rideshare drivers.
In 2014, the French Constitutional Council justified its decision by referring to "the public order of parking", which the municipality is mistress... The justification given here is to protect the occupant.
Indeed all rideshare drivers will be obliged provide proof that they are subject to health checks, especially on drugs and provide criminel check also.
This is justified because Regulation of an activity implies control of those who exercise it and equal competitors can justify that for the same activity some are removed, especialy in view of the protection of the person transported.
The third new requirement is of a different nature: the driver must prove that it is not in debt to the municipality. Why not, since the infrastructure of the city allows them to exercise the economic activity in question. This is another underlying objective, which lies rather in the idea of an exchange between the city and the one who transports people, the beneficiary of infrastructure should not be otherwise debtor that it enjoys public infrastructure.
The latter provision shows that the "contract" is increasingly not between the carrier and transported - via the virtual platform - but between the very concrete public space and one that circulates and do not live there.