Slow drive taxi protest in Barcelona against anti-competition fine
Élite Taxi sanctioned €123,000 for pressuring drivers not to use ride-hailing apps
Taxi drivers in Barcelona performed a slow drive protest through the city on Tuesday morning against the €123,000 anti-competition fine that Élite Taxi, one of the city's main taxi unions, received last month.
Describing Catalan anti-competition authorities, ACCO, as "GESTACCO," drivers have blocked traffic on Avinguda Maria Cristina near Plaça Espanya square.
With over a hundred drivers beeping their horns incessantly, the group drove slowly down Gran Via, one of the main roads through the Catalan capital, before a stop at the offices of ACCO to light firecrackers.
The group then made its way toward the Catalan parliament building, but in the end did not enter the Ciutadella park, where the chamber is located, and the protest was finished shortly after 12.
Élite Taxi, no stranger to demonstrations, announced that they would be taking to the streets once again on September 11, Catalonia's National Day.
Union leader Tito Álvarez also announced that the group presented an appeal against the fine to the Catalan High Court.
Álvarez compared the Catalan competition authorities to Nazis and Franco-era magistrates and announced that the union are preparing a legal complaint against ACCO for perverting the course of justice, influence peddling, and bribery.
Élite Taxi, the organization that won the 2017 European Court of Justice case in which Uber was deemed a transportation services company and not a platform, also calls for an investigative committee in Parliament "on the #UberFiles to be able to demonstrate the preferential treatment (possible influence peddling) of ACCO for Uber in our case."
According to them, "In Catalonia, there is a political/economic court that tries to censure taxis based on disproportionate sanctions for exercising their freedom of expression."
€123,000 fine
The authorities argue Élite Taxi "launched a pressure campaign" against Uber in late 2020 when Uber was set to begin providing its services in Barcelona, discouraging drivers in the metropolitan area from using the app and "spreading a negative and discrediting image of Uber in the media."
According to ACCO, the group's actions constitute a "very serious infringement" of Spanish competition law 15/2007.