> You can see they knew this by the lobbying effort that Uber did to even get where they did so they could ignore laws without immediate consequence.
In the US that worked (simply because US politicians can be bought off via Super PACs etc, which is absurd in itself), but in other markets (esp. Europe) they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies.
Not really, the British regulators and courts keep finding against them but there’s zero enforcement, Uber continue operating as normal. The Mayor Of London is weak.
Uber Pop (=private drivers) got banned in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium [1], Uber Black (=cars for hire, with pro driver) got banned in Germany [2]. Given that Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the Top 5 EU economies by BIP (with the half-exception of UK where Uber simply ignores court rules), I'd say "took a beating" is the most civil way to write what really happens.
In the US that worked (simply because US politicians can be bought off via Super PACs etc, which is absurd in itself), but in other markets (esp. Europe) they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies.