They do have an app, it's called "FreeNow" and works OK imo. The main reason Taxi companies are complaining is that there are different sets of rules for Taxi companies (that are supposed to operate in the public interest) and rental companies with drivers (which are not). E.g. Taxis have to wait at designated parking spots and are not allowed to drive around between rides.

I don't necessarily agree with their arguments, but I also don't think Uber should get a "free ride".

They can. Uber added nothing to market other than an app, which everyone was doing for every potential business at the time anyways.

Their differentiators though were primarily the crazy amount of VC money they were willing to lose and the fact that they had absolutely no qualms about trampling about each and every law they could. To the point that they would break laws that they didn't even need to.

But asking for forgiveness when you have a ton of VC money is obviously better than not messing up in the first place.

Only good thing is thst, I hope, the market is seeing through these criminals (at best).

> Their differentiators though were primarily the crazy amount of VC money they were willing to lose and the fact that they had absolutely no qualms about trampling about each and every law they could.

It's nice to see European bureaucracy at work and actually enforcing rules. Seems like it's much more resistant to regulatory capture than the US where, looks like, you can just flaunt any laws if you have enough money.

Taxi companies do have apps "free now" (formerly "mytaxi") and "taxi.eu" that majority of them use. The functionality is more or less the same as with uber.

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/free-now-mytaxi/id357852748?l=...

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/taxi-eu/id465315934

I'd be happy with FreeNow instead of Uber, if it was available outside of large cities. Many taxi drivers still refuse to sign up for FreeNow. I spoke to one taxi driver and asked her why she wouldn't use FreeNow and she mentioned something about the fees being too high. Of course, she only accepted cash, too. I was just glad that I wasn't getting yelled at for paying with a 50 Euro note.

> Of course, she only accepted cash, too.

Cash? In Germany? Outrageous!

(When in Rome, do as the Romans do)

I'm German and haven't used cash in years.

There are still a few people that use it exclusively, but they're getting rarer each year. You can pay with cash almost everywhere though, so I can understand how this believe keeps getting repeated

It‘s not about acceptance, but about the law. German law mandates every business to accept the legal tender which is Euro notes and coins.

>Why can’t the taxi companies compete by building an app that provides the booking part?

Yes, why can't they ? Turns out building apps users will use is not a commodity that can be bought off the shelf.

Actually, those apps are very much a commodity. Everyone and their dog has one. However, users are price-sensitive, and apps need marketing - both of those concerns turn competition into money spending game; Uber has more money and exploits the international scale of their business.

> Why can’t the taxi companies compete by building an app that provides the booking part?

They have. The ruling is completely arbitrary.

The ruling doesn't look arbitrary to me:

Uber pretended to not be part of the transaction, while they were a) the public face to the customer, b) offering the ride at a given price, c) negotiated with a specific driver to fulfill it (and only then got the middleman on board to sign off on the transaction).

As usual for Uber they went for the sketchiest way possible to deal with regulations, as if they're looking for ways to argue about them in court as often as possible.

Their problem: no court (except one) in Germany makes law because we don't have the Anglo-saxon concept of case law.