Europe

Abstract

On August 25, 2014, a Frankfurt court issued a preliminary injunction against the ridesharing company, Ober, for violating Germany's Passenger Transportation Act because Qber was providing transportation services without mandatory insurance and licensing.' A taxi association sought the injunction because taxi drivers were losing business to tber. Shortly thereafter, on September 16, the court revoked the preliminary injunction holding that, though banning Qber in Germany was probably correct for violating the Passenger Transportation Act, the underlying matter was not "urgent" as is required for preliminary injunctions. The taxi association had waited several months before filing the action against Uber. Not surprisingly, this decision did not sit well with the taxi association, nor with taxi drivers. Therefore, rather than filing another action against tber, two separate Frankfurt-based taxi drivers took measures into their own hands and ordered rides on Qber. They subsequently sought their own injunctions against the respective Ober drivers. Frankfurt courts issued preliminary injunctions against the individual drivers rather than against the corporate entity of tber.3 Taking action against the tber drivers was meant to scare other