Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) 20 December 2017, C-434/15 (Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain, SL.)

Also known as

The Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber) ruled on a reference from the Commercial Court No 3, Barcelona, concerning whether Uber's smartphone-based intermediation service connecting non-professional drivers with urban passengers constitutes an 'information society service' under Directive 98/34/EC and Directive 2000/31/EC, or a 'service in the field of transport' under Article 58(1) TFEU and Article 2(2)(d) of Directive 2006/123/EC. The Court held that, because Uber exercises decisive influence over the conditions of transport provision—including fare-setting, driver selection, and quality control—the intermediation service forms an integral part of an overall service whose main component is transport, rendering it inherently linked to a transport service rather than a standalone information society service. Consequently, such a service falls outside the scope of Article 56 TFEU, Directive 2006/123/EC, and Directive 2000/31/EC, and is governed by Article 58(1) TFEU, leaving Member States competent to regulate its conditions in conformity with the general rules of the TFEU.AI