Taxi-hailing giant Uber has suffered a major blow in its quest for world domination after it was booted out of one of its most important overseas markets today. The local regulators of London, United Kingdom, have decided to revoke Uber's Private Hire license, citing the company's cavalier approach to corporate responsibility. The license will expire next Saturday and Uber cabs will no longer be able to operate in one of Europe's biggest cities.

Big setback for Uber

London's transport regulator Transport for London, better known as TFL, has revoked taxi-hailing app Uber's license to operate in the city.

According to their statement, the regulator believes that the operator is not 'fit and proper to hold a private hire operator license'. Uber's license expires next Saturday and the company has the option of appealing within the next 21 next days. Following the announcement, the company's general manager in the United Kingdom, Tom Elvidge, stated that the company will be challenging this decision in the courts immediately.

Uber has been through a lot of trouble in recent months, and this is the latest setback for the company in a year that is definitely going to be an unforgettable one for the world's most valuable start-up. London is one of the most important markets for the company and the latest setback might have a major impact on the San Francisco based company's operations in other countries.

The impact

TFL's decision to revoke Uber's license will, however, have a wide-ranging impact on the citizens of the city and the drivers who are contracted to the company.

According to a Bloomberg report, Uber is used by a whopping 3.5 million people in London and the number of drivers stands at 40,000. It is believed that the decision might lead to protests from drivers who are contracted to Uber and also from commuters who have gotten used to the comforts of the service.

It is one of the toughest regulatory hurdles that Uber has ever faced anywhere in the world and, even more worryingly, the decision has also been endorsed by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.

"I fully support TFL’s decision," said the mayor. "TfL has been given rules by Parliament and their job is to make sure companies play by the rules," he added, according to a report by LBC.

“TFL isn’t anti-private hire vehicle operators, what TFL is against is companies not playing by the rules so customers, members of staff and others should be angry at Uber for not playing by the rules, rather than TFL who are doing their job by making sure companies are playing by the rules,” he said.
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