After losing its appeal against the UK Supreme Court, Uber will now face a court hearing today in a bid to regain its license across London.
The ride-hailing app was knocked back by the UK’s highest court last week as the Supreme Court rejected its request to appeal, forcing the tech giant to take the case to the Court of Appeal first.
Now Uber is left battling for its license renewal at Westminster’s Magistrates Court in a preliminary hearing. Today’s hearing is expected to be an administrative session with the hope to set a date for a full hearing in the New Year.
Hoping to have a positive outcome, Uber will push to reason it is fit to run its services across the UK’s Capital, despite concerns from Transport for London (TfL) and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and set a date to take the case to the Court of Appeal for a final say.
TfL first rejected the company’s license renewal in September, after it was deemed unfit to operate across London after a series of scandals and allegations including sexual harassment, driver woes and unfit working conditions.
Uber drive forward in the battle for license renewal
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made a public apology when the license was first rejected, promising the company were “determined to make things right.”
However, it seems Uber has not learnt its lesson from actions in London after its license renewal was also rejected further up North. Sheffield is the next city expected to lose Uber, after its license was not granted a renewal following the company failing to act on official management queries.
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The company will continue to operate its services across Sheffield until the 18th December with the option of appealing the decision, leaving another court case on Uber’s hands.
If Uber is to take the Sheffield appeal to court it will leave them with another court cases in the last three months, after losing its court case against employee conditions in November. Uber refused to class its drivers as self-employed as opposed to workers, leaving drivers with no rights such as holiday pay.
To add to the long list of problems the company has also been exposed to hiding a data breach that left 57milliom people affected, leaving the company seemingly untrusted by local authorities putting its future at risk.
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As problems continue to rise for Uber, it leaves many people struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel for the once loved ride-hailing firm. The data breach and losing its license in Sheffield could be the final straw for the company, with the final say will from the Court of Appeal in the New year.
If Uber inevitably loses its license in the Capital, it brings to question how it will continue to successfully operate across the rest of the country.
