License are free when delivered by the state ("préfecture"); but taxis effectively lobby against creating new ones, in order to preserve the value of existing o

License are free when delivered by the state ("préfecture"); but taxis effectively lobby against creating new ones, in order to preserve the value of existing ones and to prevent competition, so extremely few are ever distributed. In practice, the only way to get one is to buy one from a retiring driver. The vacuum that attracted Uber has been created by their resistance against license creation, they dug their own grave. The two big problems in Paris are that you can't find a taxi when you need one, and when you have one, he often doesn't have a credit card reader (those pesky snitches which prevent tax evasion).