Achi news desk-
A trial began Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit in which taxi drivers accuse the Quebec government of causing their permits to lose all value by allowing the ride-sharing company Uber to operate, then revoking the permit system.
According to the participants in the class action, the government’s “negligence” led to the expropriation of taxi permit holders in areas where Uber offered its services without fair and reasonable compensation.
When Uber launched operations in Quebec in 2013, the government allowed it to operate despite not complying with existing regulations.
This led to a decrease in demand for taxi permits and as a result to a decrease in their value, claim the plaintiffs.
They also claim that government actions, including the introduction of a pilot project in 2016 to legalize Uber’s operations in Quebec, have accelerated the decline in the value of their permits.
They were finally eliminated as part of a reform of the taxi industry in 2019.
According to the plaintiffs, by implementing its pilot project to train Uber’s operations, the government was negligent, acted in bad faith and intentionally caused the loss of value of taxi driver licenses.
Previously, the government strictly controlled the number of taxi licenses in each city across the province.
In 2015, for example, Montreal was allowed 4,522, and the price of the permits soared to around $200,000.
When Uber entered the market, the value of these certifications began to decline, as new drivers didn’t want to spend the money as the industry was rapidly changing.
In 2019, the government passed a law abolishing the permit system and easing other regulations.
Although the government compensated the permit holders, their lawyers say many received about $150,000 less than the market value of the permits before Uber came to the county.
“In many cases, these permits represented their owners’ most important financial asset, in addition to being their retirement plan and the legacy they planned to leave to their children,” explained the law firm Trudel Johnston & Lespérance, which represents the taxi drivers.
The class action, approved in 2018, seeks damages equivalent to the market value of a taxi owner’s license before Uber’s arrival in Quebec in 2013 and punitive damages of $1,000 per class member.
Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrett’s office declined to comment on the case on Monday, as it is before the courts.
However, the government has already argued that it cannot be sued for political decisions and says that the claims contained in the class action are not specific.
— This Canadian Press report was first published in French on April 2, 2024.
