You are forgetting about the strength of unions. Strikes look really bad for politicians and they are really easy to put together in countries such as Spain or

You are forgetting about the strength of unions. Strikes look really bad for politicians and they are really easy to put together in countries such as Spain or France. On top of that, for some historical reasons citizens of these countries tend to support the strikers no matter what. Most of the people in Spain have never heard of Uber, so if the (government/opposition controlled) media is telling them that they are unlawfully stealing the jobs of taxi drivers, they will blindly support taxi drivers. Regulator-politicians aren't looking to "protect citizens/consumers" they are looking after their asses, because if they were they would get rid off the current taxi system and start from scratch, or at least take an Irish-like approach. UPDATE: This is the main reason why Uber has been banned http://ep01.epimg.net/ccaa/imagenes/2014/12/05/madrid/1417791577_876738_1417866536_noticia_normal.jpg http://ep01.epimg.net/ccaa/imagenes/2014/12/05/madrid/141779...