News

Two Uber directors to appear in court

Uber France accused of illegally handling data and misleading commercial practices

30 Jun 2015

Uber France, its managing director and its manager for Europe stand accused of misleading commercial practices, complicity in the illegal operation of taxis, and illegal handling of data.

The managers, MD Thibaud Simphal and Europe manager Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, are set to appear in a French court on 30 September, according to the Office of the Paris Public Prosecutor, which made the announcement 24 hours after the two men were taken into custody on 29 June.

In a statement, the prosecutor told Le Monde: "The investigations carried out in the course of this investigation, which are numerous and complex, have been conducted in parallel with proceedings against the drivers employed by the organisation for illegally operating a taxi."

A total 202 Uber drivers were fined on 30 June, and another received a suspended 15-day prison sentence. A further 79 cases are still being processed.

Simphal and Gore-Coty were arrested, and several pieces of documentation, mobile phones, and computers seized from Uber France's offices, on Monday 29 June on suspicion of having broken French data protection legislation.

They are suspected of storing clients' personal data in a way that contravenes a law called La loi n78-17 du 6 janvier 1978 relative l'informatique, aux fichiers et aux libert - the French equivalent of the data protection act.

The men are also accused of breaking the Thvenoud law of October 2014, which governs how taxis are registered, paid for, licensed and demarkated, among other things.

Uber France's American parent company, Uber, has complained to the European Commission regarding the Thvenoud law and is seeking to have it repealed.