The Estonian company Taxify can once again provide alternative taxi services in Prague without limitations, the press agent for the company Jan Novosad informed Novinky. The decision of the Prague Supreme Court cancelled the interim measure of the Municipal Court, which forbade the company from operating and providing services in Prague. According to Taxify themselves, they are not running the taxi services, they are solely developing the app.
The matter was given back to the court of first instance for further discussion. The court of first instance must take into account Taxify’s arguments in the upcoming court proceedings.
“We welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision. Taxify has worked unchanged for over 14 months and so there’s no reason to take non-standard steps against Taxify, whose purpose is solely to benefit traditional taxi dispatch,” Roman Sysel, the head of Taxify in the Czech Republic, told Novinky.
“We believe that in the next hearing before the Municipal Court, where our case has been moved, Taxify’s arguments will finally be heard and that the interim measures will be dismissed completely and justice will be served,” he added and noted that in a similar case concerning Uber, the Municipal Court decided differently.
Taxify filed an appeal in August
At the end of May, the Municipal Court of Prague issued an interim measure that forbade the Taxify company to continue providing an alternative taxi service in Prague. It complied with the request of the Association of Prague Taxi Service Providers (SPPT) who had filed a proposal for the interim measure. Taxify filed an appeal against the decision in August. [the whole report]
Taxify started operating in Prague in August 2015. In October that year, so-called private drivers obtained access to the platform. According to Taxify, no one has had any objections against the practice throughout the time of its operation.
For the sake of unifying the rules
According to the taxi drivers’ association, the aim of the proposal for the interim measure was not to prevent the said companies from doing business on the taxi service market, but to unify the rules for all.
“Uber and Taxify don’t work on the basis of shared transport; they are simply commercial drivers who make money or have another source of income, which is in both cases the standard model of a taxi service,” according to a press release from the Urban a Hejduk law firm, which represents the taxi service association.
