The regulations that Uber and Airbnb violated were in a grey area. In addition, the violations were largely supported by the general public. The generous spirit of the regulations on taxis where to protect the general public. Uber were for the most part just as safe as taxis. The not so generous reasons for taxi regulations was to increase the income of taxi companies. In many ways, Uber and Airbnb had the moral high ground of forcing governments to remove regulations that benefit a select few at the expense of the general public.

https://stratechery.com/2017/the-uber-conflation/