PARIS—French police on Monday detained Uber Technologies Inc.'s
top two executives in Paris, French prosecutors said, making good
on the government's promise to crack down on the car-hailing
service after violent protests by taxi drivers last week.
Investigators for the French police's online-fraud unit are
questioning Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber's General Manager for
Western Europe, and Thibaud Simphal, Uber's general manager for
France, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office said
Monday.
The two Uber executives are being questioned for alleged
violations of a new transportation law in France that bans
operating a service like Uber's low-cost offering, Uberpop, which
matches passengers with drivers who don't have professional
licenses, prosecutors said. The new law makes operating such a
system punishable with a fine of as much as €300,000 ($334,971) and
two years in prison.
Under French law, individuals can be detained for questioning
without preliminary charges for an initial period of up to 24
hours, which can in some cases be renewed. After a detention, a
suspect can be let go, or be turned over to an investigating
magistrate who can press preliminary charges.
"Two representatives of Uber today went voluntarily to a police
hearing that is part of a continuing legal proceeding—they have
since been taken into custody," an Uber spokesman said. "Uber is
always willing to work with authorities to overcome possible
misunderstandings."
The detentions mark a big escalation of the government's
campaign against Uber in one its major markets, following a series
of taxi protests that snarled roads across France last Thursday.
Uber says it has nearly one million regular customers in France,
including about 400,000 who use Uberpop.
French officials have since last fall said that Uberpop is
illegal, but so far have cracked down mainly on Uberpop drivers,
not Uber itself. Prosecutors raided Uber's offices in March to
search for evidence in a continuing inquiry, but haven't so far
filed charges against Uber or its executives for violations of the
new law.
Uber contends the new law that would ban Uberpop itself violates
the French constitution and European treaties, and therefore
doesn't apply. In a separate court case, Uber is currently
challenging the provision before France's constitutional court. The
company is also asking the European Union to intercede and block
the law.
In the wake of the violent protests against Uber last week that
shut down access to both of the main airports in Paris and to train
stations, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve asked police
chiefs to issue decrees banning the service. He also asked
prosecutors to begin investigating Uber, and to start impounding
the cars of Uberpop drivers, rather than simply fining them.
The French Interior Ministry said last week that police have
opened cases against 420 drivers, something that can lead to fines
or impounding of vehicles. Mr. Cazeneuve said that police would
start impounding vehicles every time an Uberpop driver is caught in
the act.
"The law is quite straightforward in what it says," Mr.
Gore-Coty said in an interview last week. "But we are concerned
that there are very serious issues with the law that make it
unconstitutional."
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
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