Uber and two executives were fined by a French criminal court over claims the company’s UberPop ride-sharing service broke the law before it was suspended.
The court fined the company and executives a total of €850,000 (£665,000), half of which was suspended, at a hearing in Paris on Thursday.
French prosecutors had attacked Uber over fraudulent commercial practices, encouraging illegal activity and improper use of personal data.
Uber has faced regulatory challenges in a variety of cities where it operates, from its birthplace in San Francisco to Munich, Stockholm and Mumbai.
In France, regulators have focused their attention on the UberPop service, which it suspended in July last year. The service allows anyone with a vehicle and driver’s license to offer a taxi service, in contrast with Uber’s main chauffeured-car operation that requires registration with authorities.
The head of Uber’s French office, Thibaud Simphal, was fined €20,000 while Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, the company’s head of operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was fined another €30,000.
After raising $3.5 bn from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund this month, Uber is pursuing its international expansion, duelling with powerful local rivals – like Didi Chuxing in China – as well as seeking to appease regulators.
Founder Travis Kalanick met with European lawmakers last month to discuss Uber’s role in helping cities fix problems like traffic, parking, and having too many cars on the roads.
© 2016 Bloomberg L.P
