The US multinational company Uber Inc. has witnessed a major setback in Colombia. The company announced that that it will shut down its all operations from the 1st of February 2020. As per the court, the company has violated transportation laws and was not competing fairly in the country. As per the company, the decision taken by the court is ‘’erratic’’ and also a violation of free trade deal with the US companies. Till date, around 88,000 drivers are associated with the company and are catering to 2 million customers in the country. The company is exiting from Colombia however the local taxi has to still compete with global taxi-aggregator including Didi.
Colombia is not the first country to rule against Uber. In December 2019, a German court banned Uber-ride hailing services in the country citing that the company lacks the necessary license to offer passenger transport services using rental cars. Earlier to this, in 2017, the company was also temporarily banned in Italy. However, it is the first time the company got banned in the whole country.
Uber Inc. founded in 2009 entered Colombia in 2013 and is facing resistance from taxi owners and unions repeatedly from the initial days. It is another setback for the company after the company’s share falls significantly from its IPO price opened in May 2019. In its IPO, the company raised around $8.1 billion with a valuation of $82.4 billion offering share at a price of $45. The company gross revenue in 2018 was $11.3 billion with a loss of $1.8 billion.
