Sam Gellman (center) and Hon Ng (right)
The Uber platform is in full compliance with local laws and regulations” states Uber’s North Asia General Manager Sam Gellman. In a press conference held yesterday in Macau, Uber claimed that the ride-sharing transportation service that local travel agencies and their drivers are providing through the Uber platform to customers in Macau is in full compliance with the law.
The company, through its Asia Pacific Legal Counsel Hon Ng, said it intends to work together with its partners to file a formal complaint to the Public Security Police Force (CPSP) and Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) over the “unjustified fines and unjustified impounding of their cars,” given the legally compliant nature of the service. They will also challenge these supposed injustices on the basis of “the fact that the CPSP is not complying with a ruling by the Administrative Court that states it cannot impose such fines on drivers of travel agency cars nor impound these vehicles of its own free will.”
Uber says there are numerous irregularities in the way the police have carried out their law enforcement duties regarding Uber, such as having drivers sign pre-completed statements, and attempting to confiscate their phones despite the fact that no one was arrested.
“In spite of being fully compliant with the legislation and fully licensed by the MGTO to conduct their activities, our partners experienced a number of law enforcement activities last week, which included fines and the impounding of their cars. We are currently working with them and with the authorities to get those cars returned,” said Mr Hon Ng.
Uber cites local legal experts and its own extensive due diligence prior to launching in Macau to clarify that the travel agencies and drivers that have partnered with the platform have been providing for-hire transportation to both residents and visitors in Macau for a long time, as well as to businesses such as hotels and casinos. The company states that what it is doing is exactly the same as what Uber was doing before. “There are no legal restrictions on such businesses using applications to find customers, just as there are no legal restrictions on hotels using travel booking applications to find customers,” said Sam Gellman.
As stated by the company’s spokesperson, Uber does not own or rent any cars or drivers’ services; it is merely a technology platform that provides an additional way for the agencies to find customers.
The company highlighted that the partnership with the travel agencies and other legally established service providers is an expression of the company’s commitment to serving the people of Macau. It aims to do this by providing a new, reliable, safe, and high-quality transportation option that is on demand for visitors to Macau from around the world.
“We have added over 127,000 individual persons who opened our app in Macau over the last year, looking for a ride. The demand for the service was already there,” said Mr Gellman.
According to him, since the soft launching of the service in Macau (on October 22), it has been used by locals and tourists from 40 different cities that have been providing very positive feedback. Renato Marques
Need competition and better services and Uber should not be discontinued. Now Macau is left with cheating taxis and reckless bus drivers rude to passengers and posing risks to local traffic. No other options. And not enough parking places so having a car is a pain. Macau is just corrupted and sad. Uber model actually works for a city like this. The useless officials are just selfish because they have their own drivers and cars with privileges so they don’t’ care. Macau is so backward because of that.