Ride hailing service Uber will be forced to withdraw from the Danish market as of 18 April, in response to the country’s new taxi laws requiring all drivers to have fare meters and seat sensors.
The move will affect an estimated 300,000 people in the Scandanavian region who use the app and around 2,000 Uber drivers will lose their jobs.
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“For us to operate in Denmark again the proposed regulations need to change. We will continue to work with the government in the hope that they will update their proposed regulations and enable Danes to enjoy the benefits of modern technologies like Uber,” the San Francisco-based company said in a statement.
Since Uber launched in Denmark in 2014, local taxi driver unions and politicians have complained that it fails to meet the same regulatory standards as traditional taxi companies.
Late last year, the country’s high court ruled that Uber was an illegal taxi service. However, the decision did not force Uber out of the country, despite calls from Lizette Risgaard the head of the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (LO).
“I now expect Uber to stop offering pirate taxis in Denmark. We need to stop the illegal and unfair competition that Uber has created,” said Risgaard in a statement at the time.
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Uber will continue to operate its data center in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark, which employs 40 people.
“It is a shame, that there was not a majority in favor of the government’s proposal for a significant liberalization of the taxi law, which would have made it easier for Uber and similar ride services to operate legally in Denmark,” Denmark’s transport minister Ole Birk Olesen said in a statement today.
