LONDON — Uber suffered a blow to its expansion plans in Europe on Tuesday after a senior adviser to the region’s highest court said that the ride-hailing service should have to abide by tough rules governing taxi services.
The recommendation, a nonbinding opinion by an advocate general for the Court of Justice of the European Union, comes as Uber faces an array of challenges worldwide. This year alone, the company has faced a sexual harassment scandal, accusations that it tried to evade local law enforcement, and the resignation last month of its chief executive, Travis Kalanick.
The case before the court hinged on whether Uber should be treated as a taxi service, and therefore subject to rigorous safety and employment rules, or as a digital platform that merely connected independent drivers with passengers.
The French authorities brought criminal proceedings last year against the ride-hailing service for infringing a law that required any vehicle carrying passengers for a fee to be licensed as a taxi service and to have appropriate insurance.
Uber had argued that the law was also a “technical regulation” over digital services. That being the case, the company said, the French authorities were required to notify the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, before the legislation was adopted. Because France did not do so, Uber contended, the law could not be enforced.
The senior adviser, Maciej Szpunar, an advocate general of the court, recommended on Tuesday that Uber was effectively a taxi service. He wrote that France could ban certain types of transportation services it deemed illegal, including Uber’s low-cost service UberPop, without having to notify the European Commission.
Uber did not immediately respond to…
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