德國法院撤銷Uber拼車軟件運營禁令

LONDON — The ride-hailing startup company Uber won a major victory in Germany on Tuesday after a local court overturned a nationwide ban that had barred the company from operating its popular car-sharing service.

倫敦——叫車軟件初創公司Uber週二在德國贏得一場關鍵勝利，此前一項全德範圍內禁用該公司熱門的拼車服務的禁令，被一家地方法院推翻。

The court's decision follows vocal opposition to Uber from taxi associations across Europe, which accuse the company of breaking local laws.

此次判決出臺前，出租車協會對Uber的抗議已經遍佈全歐，他們指責該公司違反了地方法律。

Yet in its ruling Tuesday, the court in Frankfurt, Germany, announced that Uber, which is based in San Francisco, could continue to operate in Germany.

而週二德國法蘭克福的這家法院則裁定，Uber，這家總部位於舊金山的美國公司，可以繼續在德國經營。

The judges were sympathetic to the arguments of Taxi Deutschland, a trade body that had brought the initial case against Uber, claiming that the service competed unfairly with local taxis, said Arne Hasse, a spokesman for the Frankfurt court.

法官們對德國出租車協會(Taxi Deutschland)的觀點表示了同情，正是該貿易組織最先對Uber提出控告，稱該公司的服務是在與當地出租車司機進行不公平競爭，法蘭克福法院的發言人阿尼·哈斯(Arne Hasse)說。

But he said that while the association was right in bringing the case and requesting the injunction, the group had waited too long to file the case, and therefore the injunction had to be lifted.

但哈斯說，儘管出租車協會提出控告並要求禁令是正確的，但該組織等了太久才正式提出訴訟，因此禁令不得不被解除。

Taxi Deutschland said that it still believed that Uber was acting unlawfully and that it would appeal the decision in the coming month.

德國出租車協會稱，它仍相信Uber的行爲是非法的，並將在下個月對該判決提出上訴。

“Uber stands for a particularly extreme form of wage dumping, which refuses to allow for any minimum wage,” Dieter Schlenker, Taxi Deutschland's chairman, said in a statement. “We hope that politicians will steer the taxi clearly into the future and won't let the USA firms put any ideas in their heads.”

“Uber代表的是十分極端的一種工資傾銷，以此拒絕接受任何最低工資標準，”德國出租車協會主席迪特爾·施倫克(Dieter Schlenker)在一份聲明中說。“我們希望政界人士能將出租車行業引向未來，而不是讓美國公司們往他們腦子裏灌輸各種想法。”

The dispute concerns Uber's low-cost UberPop product, which connects drivers with customers through a smartphone application. The initial ruling, on Sept. 2, said that the service competed unfairly with local taxis, and that Uber did not provide the necessary licenses and insurance for its drivers.

這次爭端圍繞的是Uber的低端產品UberPop，該產品將司機與乘客通過智能手機軟件相連接。9月2日的一審裁定稱該服務與當地出租車司機進行了不公平競爭，而且Uber也沒有爲司機提供必須的牌照和保險。

Uber faced fines in Germany of up to 250,000 euros (about $330,000) or a jail term of up to six month for a local employee if it violated the temporary injunction. Uber drivers, who are not employees, did not face direct penalties.

Uber如果違反這個臨時禁令，將在德國面臨25萬歐元的罰款，公司在當地的一名僱員可能面臨最多六個月的監禁。使用Uber軟件的司機不是僱員，不會受到直接處罰。

The company previously said that it would continue to operate in Germany despite the legal uncertainty.

Uber公司曾表示，儘管面臨法律上的不確定性，但公司還將繼續在德國運營。

“This is an industry that doesn't want to see competition,” Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber's regional general manager for northern Europe, said in an interview before the court decision was announced Tuesday. “Incumbents will try to find any legal way to stop companies like Uber from competing.”

週二法庭做出裁決之前，Uber在歐洲北部的地區總經理皮埃爾-迪米特利·戈爾-科蒂接受採訪說：“這個行業不願看到競爭，已經佔據市場的人會尋找任何法律途徑阻止Uber這樣的公司參與競爭。”