Caitlin Quinn
SPAIN’S most popular car-pooling platform, Blablacar, is being sued by Spanish bus operator Confebus for creating ‘unfair competition’.
Confebus claim Blablacar have made enormous profits by skirting regulations.
But the French-based company rejects the charges, saying that it is ‘not a means of transport, but a social network that connects individual people who are traveling to the same place, only sharing travel costs’.
Blablacar takes a 10% commission from passengers, who find rides and pay drivers for their share of travel costs via the platform’s website.
A court date has been set for October 1.
The company hopes to avoid the same fate as taxi-style ride-sharing platform Uber, which was banned from operating in Spain in December 2014.
lol Spain never really understood modern business. As soon as some competition comes along they sue it. It’s amazing that they even allowed legal action to be brought in the first place. It’s a great concept as it reduces congestion and pollution. Spain shows itself to be backward on such issues, once again.
lol….so so true
Plenty of opposition to these modern web outfits in the UK and Germany too – just ask a cabbie about Uber! LOL. As for the Spanish allegedly not understanding modern business – Just walk down the typical UK high street. Not only do you see Spanish retailers like Zara and Mango crushing the opposition, but you also see UK banks that had to be rescued by Spanish banks like Santander and (lately) Sabadell with TSB…. Of course the allegation is nonsense, plenty of business savvy folk in all countries, but what do you expect from the same clowns who claimed a few years ago that Spain couldn’t compete within the Euro. Guess which country is recording the highest growth this year! Still, best leave the “experts” to lecture on a website, they obviously know no better than to display their ignorance..
This case is nothing like Uber at all, so epic fail on that comparison lol. Car-sharing is an age-old concept that someone has now cleverly centralised and monetised. Spain so hates entrepreneurs with a vengeance. Btw the IMF just said that Spain’s growth is unsustainable and will fall sharply. You see a few summer (zero contract) jobs appear and exclaim the recovery has arrived. If only it was that simple.
Draconian state!
Thanks Dref, but watch out as you might be in breach of the new Spanish gagging law.