Hungary is planning to ban the service offered by the US-based mobile ride hail company Uber, according to a government politician.

With regulating the taxi industry, the Hungarian government is expressly restricting unlawful activity but continues to support and encourage innovative solutions, János Fónagy, State Secretary at the Ministry of National Development, said. Mr. Fónagy stressed that he had previously negotiated with sixteen taxi drivers’ interest groups and asked them to submit a proposal on the overhaul of the entire regulatory system.

János Fónagy, State Secretary at the Ministry of National Development

A taxi ordinance passed by the government in February 2016 enabled the confiscation of number plates from drivers offering a taxi service without authorisation and from May, organisations operating unauthorised dispatch centres can also be hit with a HUF 300 000 (USD 1120) fine. According to the State Secretary, Uber’s level of activity has somewhat fallen as a result of these measures and the app does not allow the registration of new users but the firm has not discontinued illegal activity.

According to the firm’s statistics, there are 1200 Uber drivers in Hungary at the moment.

Under the new proposal, drivers offering a taxi service without authorisation will be hit with 9 traffic violation points and an additional 9 in the event of repeat offending. Thus, after two occasions, driving licences would be revoked for six months and drivers’ cars would be barred from taking part in traffic for half a year in the first case and three years in the second, Mr. Fónagy said, adding that authorities will block the website used to operate the app if the law is passed.

Uber arrived to Budapest in November 2014. Budapest taxi drivers have held multiple protests and demonstrations against Uber and unlicensed driving in recent months, including as recently as last week.

A number of countries and cities across the world have made attempts to ban the app and other sharing apps such as AirBnB, which is blamed for driving up property rent prices to levels unaffordable by locals.

EDIT :
The decision has been made. Uber must get out of the country and stop all the active works in a force major of 11 days.

updated news soon..

via origo.hu
photo: 24.hu

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