JAKARTA, Indonesia—Uber Technologies Inc., the ride-hailing company that has exploded in popularity in its first year in Indonesia, suddenly finds itself the target of a police investigation following claims by traditional taxis that the startup's practices are illegal.
Police in Jakarta confirmed this week that they are investigating complaints made in late February by a group representing taxis and other transportation operators, known as the Organization of Land Transportation Owners, or Organda.
The group argues Uber is violating Indonesian laws by not using meters or having a taxi license, and by making transactions with credit cards. Those practices, it claims, amount to fraud, information and electronic transaction crime and money laundering.
Police said the accusations led them to set up an operation on Friday in which five Uber drivers were asked for rides by a team of police, Organda, and Jakarta's transportation agency. The unnamed drivers were summoned via the Uber app, then detained for questioning, before being released by the police without being charged with any crime. Instead, they will be used as "witnesses" in the investigation, said Sr. Comr. Muhammad Iqbal, head of Jakarta Police's public relations division.
Uber says it isn't guilty of breaking any Indonesian laws, and isn't a taxi business, owning no cars and employing no drivers. Instead, it connects those who need rides with available drivers, billing the credit cards of clients directly through their smartphones.
"Every vehicle in Jakarta on the Uber platform is a registered for-hire car with full commercial insurance that is thoroughly inspected by Uber, meeting all local licensing and registration requirements," said Karun Arya, Uber spokesman for South Asia and India.
Addressing the Friday police operation, Uber said in a statement that it would "stand by our partner drivers 100% and help them resolve this matter amicably."
The San Francisco-based startup, which operates in more than 300 cities world-wide, has faced complaints when setting up shop, including in Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Uber has faced regulatory hurdles in many parts of the world, including in the U.S. and particularly in Europe. Courts in Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have banned a low-cost Uber service that uses nonprofessional drivers. France last year passed a law that, among other things, bans companies from showing the locations of available cars other than traditional taxis on a smartphone app—one of Uber's main features.
Uber has fought those rulings and the French law, arguing in court and before the European Union that they violate EU principles of free establishment. The strategy may be bearing some fruit: The EU last month sent a letter to France outlining concerns with the new French law, the first step in a process that could block it from being implemented.
Meanwhile, an Indian court this month left a ban on the service in place in Delhi and asked transport regulators to respond to the company's challenge to an order barring the service.
Uber has been banned in Delhi since December when a woman alleged that a driver booked through the firm's app raped her. The driver is on trial and denies wrongdoing.
The Indian arm of Uber sought to overturn the prohibition on Uber in the city after the court lifted the ban on the company's main rivals, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd.-owned Ola and TaxiForSure last week.
Police in Delhi had impounded hundreds of vehicles belonging to the firms after the Transport Department rejected the companies' applications for radio-taxi licenses, saying they had failed to provide evidence that they were complying with a ban on their services.
The Delhi High Court judge hearing Uber's petition earlier this month said the company was still subject to the ban and the next hearing on the matter would take place July 8.
A spokesman for Uber said at the time that the company had "full faith in the judicial process." A senior transport official declined to comment.
In Indonesia, Uber operates in Bali and Bandung, as well as in Jakarta, which "is the fastest growing city ever," according to the head of Uber Indonesia, Alan Jiang. While declining to give specific revenue or rider figures, Mr. Jiang said Uber has attracted hundreds of thousands of riders in Indonesia, where it launched last August, and partners with thousands of drivers.
With little overhead, Uber can often charge lower fares than taxis—which may explain the strong opposition by Organda and other rivals elsewhere. While figures aren't available for the value of the annual taxi business in Indonesia, more than nine million people live in Jakarta, which has poor public transportation and where many people can't afford to own cars.
Shafruhan Sinungan, Jakarta's Organda chairman and director of one of the largest taxi operators in Indonesia, said Uber cars "have no logo, special color, yellow plates, and taxi meter. They can't just set their own fare in this country."
Taxi fares in Indonesia are regulated by local governments under the traffic and public transportation law.
"Uber must leave Indonesia," he said.
—Newley Purnell in Singapore and Sam Schechner in Paris contributed to this article.
Source: Jakarta Police Probe Complaints Against Uber by Rivals
No comments:
Post a Comment