It's different when you're a large company with a legal team doing something not clearly illegal - than when you're a single individual doing something clearly illegal.
You didn't have to have a taxi medallion to be a black car driver and pick people up at locations upon request - which, originally, is what Uber was, exactly.
The whole point of a taxi medallion is to be able to pick people up off the street - which is what these independent drivers at the airport and train stops are doing.
> It's different when you're a large company with a legal team doing something not clearly illegal - than when you're a single individual doing something clearly illegal.
If this is sarcasm it’s too subtle for me to recognize.
I mean, even beyond the OP's point, it's the difference between something going wrong and being able to pursue a company with assets for recompense / damages versus some random guy on the street.
The medallion system was to limit the cars that wandered around the roads cluttering them up while looking for riders, as taxis do. Uber/Lyft/etc are prearranged rides that go directly between points. That's where the grey area is: black car services aren't taxis, they also work with prearranged trips between points instead of roaming the streets, but Uber/Lyft/etc can do that so quickly by app that it feels more taxi-like than black-car-like.
