Uber, Careem law sent to Parliament for ratification

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Thu, 22 Mar 2018 - 01:00 GMT

BY

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 - 01:00 GMT

A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017 - REUTERS/Simon Dawson

A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017 - REUTERS/Simon Dawson

CAIRO – 22 March 2018: Egypt’s government has sent the privately owned transport services law, which will regulate the work of the two popular ride-sharing companies Uber and Careem, to parliament on March 21 to be officially discussed and finally ratified.

Earlier, the State Council’s legislation department decided to send the law to the Cabinet for revision and to check if any further details need clarification. However, the Cabinet later decided to send it directly to the House of Representatives to be officially approved and ratified.

Legal sources told Egypt Today that the Cabinet expressed its initial approval of the law on November 22, 2017. On December 16, 2017, it was sent to the State Council and accordingly the legislation department, which had several questions about points needing more explanation.

On Tuesday, March 20, the Cairo Administrative Court accepted lawsuits demanding the full suspension of activities of 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.

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.

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