France is a nation of silly customs and infuriatingly odd notions of fairness and justice. Starting January 1, Uber drivers in France will have to wait 15 mi

France is a nation of silly customs and infuriatingly odd notions of fairness and justice. Starting January 1, Uber drivers in France will have to wait 15 minutes between receiving a reservation and actually picking up the customer. The rule, reported by French newspaper Libération, is meant to "better distinguish the activity of these vehicles from that of taxis," as only taxis have the right to drive around looking for customers, instead of taking reservations. More simply, it's designed to protect the legal monopoly of taxis by making services like Uber a lot slower and a lot less convenient. [1] Thankfully the decree was struck down. France’s Conseil d’État suspended the controversial decree against urban transportation services like Uber and LeCab. As a reminder, since January 1, drivers have had to wait 15 minutes between the time a customer hails them and they let them in the car. But it created a competitive imbalance, that’s why the rule was just suspended — TechCrunch has confirmed with multiple services. The French authority will now have to state whether this law should be completely repealed. In France, the cab industry is very regulated, and taxi licenses are hard to obtain. Over the past few years, the French government has been very understanding with cab drivers as they have the ability to block airports and city centers. Many cab drivers started to consider LeCab, Chauffeur-privé, SnapCar, Allocab, Uber and countless of others as direct competitors — they wanted something from the government.[2] [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/french-law-makes-uber-less-convenient-2013-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/french-law-makes-uber-less-co... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/council-of-state-suspends-15-minute-law-against-uber-lecab-and-others-in-france/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/council-of-state-suspends-1...