Uber says it will suspend its services in Slovakia after the deadline for the ride sharing service to stop its operations in the country — as ruled by the Bratislava District Court in February — expired. 

Uber has experienced extremes in reaction to its controversial ride-hailing service in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has been banned in Hungary, but Estonia hopes to be the first country in the world to make it fully legal. In other countries including Czechia and Croatia, Uber has been faced with protests by taxi drivers. 

The reason for the ban in Slovakia is that Uber failed to meet the conditions set for taxis and their drivers under Slovak legislation. The court’s verdict was issued in mid-February. 

“The defendant is obliged to refrain from allowing people who do not meet legal requirements ... to carry out taxi services in Slovakia,” the Slovak court’s spokesman, Pavol Adamciak, said.

“We have seen the court’s statement today and are putting our operations in Bratislava on hold until we have more clarity,” a spokeswoman for Uber said.

The complaint against Uber was filed by the Civic Association of Licensed Taxi Drivers (OZKT) in January.

"We find this verdict to be the logical outcome of our several month long fight for equality in business in the field of taxi services. The court fully identified itself with our claims, thus confirming the fact that Uber was mediating taxi services through drivers and vehicles that are at odds with Slovak legislation and harm the business environment," OZKT representatives said in response to the verdict.

In Slovakia, over 100,000 users have registered with Uber. The company has been present in the country for two years, during which time taxi drivers have launched several protests. Their main concern is the comparative advantage enjoyed by Uber since it does not comply with national laws.

Meanwhile, on March 12, Uber reached an agreement with the Czech government to standardise its operations in the country following protests organised by taxi drivers. The car-hailing company will immediately ask for a trading licence in the Czech Republic, so that its drivers will have the same or a similar licence to taxi drivers, and will register their sales, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said after meeting Uber representatives.

But for taxi associations this is not enough since they are afraid nothing will change. The Association of Czech Taxi Drivers (SCT) said that Uber and rival car-hailing company Taxify should switch off their apps until their drivers meet the legal requirements.

“Contractual transport, which [they] want to apply, is outside the law for five years, so it doesn’t exist. Further, only citizens of the Czech Republic can apply for the exam of local geography,” reacted the chairman of SCT Petr Polisensky on March 12.

To declare their dissatisfaction, SCT held a protest on March 27 in the centre of Prague, and blocked traffic around Wenceslas Square.

“We want to issue a message that we are here. Uber has pledged something, but nothing is happening for now,” said SCT spokesman Lukas Pelikan.

The use of Uber in Prague last year increased by 60% y/y, Prague TV reported. The number of active drivers has increased by half to 2,000. Of these, 90% have another source of income.