Court of Justice 11 May 2017, C-434/15 (Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain, SL.)

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In this Opinion delivered on 11 May 2017 in Case C-434/15, Advocate General Szpunar opines that Uber's UberPop service, which connects passengers with non-professional drivers via a smartphone application, constitutes a composite service in which the transport component is economically predominant and inseparable from the electronic intermediation component, such that the service as a whole cannot be classified as an 'information society service' within the meaning of Article 2(a) of Directive 2000/31/EC read in conjunction with Article 1(2) of Directive 98/34/EC. The Advocate General further opines that, because the provider exerts decisive control over the key conditions of the transport supply—including pricing, driver access, and service quality—the activity must be classified as a 'transport service' excluded from the scope of Directive 2006/123/EC by Article 2(2)(d) thereof and subject to the common transport policy framework under Article 58(1) TFEU. Accordingly, the Advocate General proposes that Member States remain free to impose authorisation and licensing requirements on such services without being constrained by the liberalisation regime of Directive 2000/31/EC or Directive 2006/123/EC.AI