Uber has been ordered to pay €1.2m (£910,000) to a French taxi union by a court in Paris, according to documents seen by Agence France-Presse.
The payment to the national union of taxis followed a complaint that drivers for the ridesharing service were acting as traditional taxis, waiting in the street in the hope of picking up passengers.
The ruling comes on a second consecutive day of large-scale protests by taxi drivers angry about the impact of Uber, which has taken up to a third of their business, according to Paris dispatchers.
Uber France was accused by the union of being “ambiguous” in its communications with drivers about the rules for private hire cars, which under French law are supposed to head back to their garages after each fare, rather than park or circulate on public roads.
Uber denied the charges, saying it “regularly informs” its drivers of the need to return to their garages after a journey.
(Published by The Guardian - January 27, 2016)