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Uber does not employ drivers or own its vehicles, but instead uses non-professionally licensed contractors with their own cars/CFM BUSINESS

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Embattled Uber faces global crackdown

– Europe biggest battle –

Town by town, Uber launched its service first in the US and quickly elsewhere, often in brazen violation of local laws. But the resistance it has faced in Europe is the company’s biggest battle yet.

Two French Uber executives arrested in June face up to two years in prison as well as fines of up to 300,000 euros ($340,000).

They had their court date postponed to February this week, but that small legal victory came in an otherwise tough few days for Uber.

On Tuesday, police raided the company’s European headquarters in the Netherlands while in London, officials proposed a 27-page set of regulations that Uber said “made no sense”.

In response, Uber launched a massive petition campaign, just as it has done in Brussels where last week its cheaper UberPop option was ordered shut within 21 days.

“It is true from a regulatory perspective and a political perspective, Europe is certainly more challenging than the United States,” MacGann, a 20-year lobbying veteran, told AFP.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest market, a court in March ordered the company to stop its service outright.

To fight back, Uber has turned to the European Union to help undo the bans and filed complaints against Germany, France and Spain.

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Regulations in most of Europe “are outdated and not fit for purpose,” MacGann said, while acknowledging that Germany and Spain, as well as Italy, “may end up being the final frontier for Uber”.

In Asia, however, Uber remained very “bullish”.

Uber set up its India operation in September 2013 and now operates in nearly a dozen cities across the country.

But in New Delhi, authorities this month maintained a ban against Uber, inflicted after a driver was charged with raping a passenger.

In China, the region’s top economy, MacGann said “Uber is the underdog,” with 40 percent of the market.

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