Uber to appeal halting services lawsuit

CAIRO – 21 March 2018: Popular ride-hailing company Uber confirmed that it is going to challenge the Cairo Administrative Court ruling issued Tuesday, March 20, which demanded the full suspension of their activities.

Uber General Manger Abdel Latef Waked told Egypt Today that they are willing to appeal the judicial ruling and in the meantime continue to operate normally without halting any of their activities in Egypt. He explained that accepting the lawsuit does not mean banning their activities at the current time.

“We totally accept and respect the Egyptian judicial ruling and cannot comment on it as there are still more procedures to be taken with regards to the legal case,” Waked said.

He added that Uber considers itself to be one of the biggest contributors to the national economy. “We created more than 150,000 job opportunities in just one year. We are doing all we can to guarantee that all Egyptians are benefiting from the transportation services through our smartphone application and we are committed to work alongside all parties and entities to help develop the whole transportation sector,” Waked said.

Earlier today, the Cairo Administrative Court accepted lawsuits demanding the full suspension of activities for the two popular ride-hailing companies, Uber and Careem, in Egypt.

According to lawsuits previously filed by taxi drivers, the GPS-based applications Uber and Careem use unlicensed private cars as taxis and thus profit from an “illegal” activity.

It also mentioned that the two services are not legally regulated and affected the livelihoods of other taxi drivers who do not work with these application-based services.

The ride-sharing companies, as well as the government, have the right to challenge today's court ruling, which could ban the operation of Uber and Careem in Egypt.

In 2016, Uber said that 30,000 drivers were using the service in Cairo as a source of income. The number of drivers who have joined the service since then has grown by 73 times that amount in one year, making Cairo the fastest-growing market for the company in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Uber arrived in Cairo and Giza in November 2014, and then began operations in Alexandria a year later.