Off the wire
• Spotlight: Chinese businesses actively participate in development of Russia's Far East  • Islamic organ strongly condemns "mass executions" of Aleppo residents  • Xinhua world news summary at 1600 GMT, Dec. 16  • E China destroys narcotics worth millions of dollars  • China voices firm opposition to contact between India, Dalai Lama  • Roundup: No progress made on long-standing territorial row during Abe-Putin summit  • U.S. stocks open higher after Fed's decision  • NE China province to ban GM crops  • China to set up national-level IPR court of appeals  • Turnover in German accommodation, food service decreases in Oct.  
You are here: 　 Home

Norwegian taxi driver convicted of illegal driving for Uber services

Xinhua, December 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Norwegian court has convicted a taxi driver of illegal driving as Uber driver, newspaper Aftenposten reported on Friday.

The unidentified 43-year-old man thus lost his driving licence for three months and his job as a taxi driver.

He was charged after police found in a crackdown on the car-sharing service that he had completed 1,100 Uber tasks in 10 weeks.

The driver finally chose to confess his illegal driving in court, and paid the fine of 8,000 kroner (922 U.S. dollars) as well as accepted the confiscation of the 34,350 kroner (3,957 U.S. dollars), which he earned as a Uber driver.

"Yes, I am guilty according to the law, but I still feel wrongly convicted. That is why I think that the punishment is unreasonable," the driver said after the ruling.

The big problem for the convicted driver is the revoked driving license, as he worked as a taxi driver while the Uber assignments were only for extra income.

The police wanted to take away driving licence from him for six months, but the court reduced the period to three months.

"However, it doesn't matter whether it is six or three months. The point is that I have lost my job. Now I'm unemployed," the driver said.

According to the report, there are many Uber drivers that can expect the same, while the car-sharing service provider is still waiting for suggestions from the Norwegian government that would "clarify the law regulations."

But the police, on the other hand, see no reason to wait for clarifications and continuously start new penalty cases against Uber drivers.

Before November there have been already 70 established cases and many of them ended up in the court room. Endit