Supreme Court upholds decision stopping UberXL's activities

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The Court of Cassation has upheld the decision by the İstanbul 10th Commercial Court of First Instance dated October 2019 which stopped the activities of UberXL (the black minivans) in Turkey. 

The supreme court yesterday (May 5) ruled that UberXL's activities "constituted unfair competition," and therefore should be stopped and that UberXL should be banned in Turkey. 

UberXL had stopped its activities already in 2019 with new regulations made related to the transportation services. UberTaksi service of the company, delivering taxi hailing services will continue to be active. The company is also delivering courier services in Turkey. 

What happened?

Uber entered Turkey in 2014; and the number of users of the service reached 5 million although Uber delivered services only in İstanbul, the major Metropole of the country. 

This was followed by the United Taxi Drivers Association and the İstanbul Drivers Chamber filing suits at the İstanbul 10th and 11th Commercial Courts of First Instance for "unfair competition." 

The association and the chamber indicated that Uber did not have any tax registration in Turkey and claimed that the company was delivering "illegal" transportation services over the Internet. 

The two cases requesting the stopping of Uber's activities were later merged in the İstanbul 10th Commercial Court of First Instance which ruled on October 16, 2019, that access should be to restricted to Uber and that the company should be banned in Turkey.

Uber appealed the decision and the case was brought to the Court of Cassation. (HA/PE)