Uber has shut its doors in Frankfurt , according to Uber , closing the office after just 18 months of operation, meaning the company's only German presence is now in Munich and Berlin . The retreat is said to have come after local licensed taxi drivers in the city refused to work with Uber , and when the cheap UberPop service, similar to UberX, faced legal hurdles in Frankfurt and was eventually banned last March by German regulators. Uber ’s withdrawal from Hamburg is one of several retreats out of European cities by the firm in recent months : with service withdrawn from Madrid and Dusseldorf in recent months after less than two months in each of the German cities, and UberPop recently pulled in Dusseldorf . Thomas Grätz, head of the Taxi and Rental Car Association, a German trade body, said Uber’s unlicensed drivers had not passed the same lengthy exams and were not subject to similar costs, like the professional drivers’ insurance required by the city’s traditional operators. Meanwhile, licensed taxi drivers in cities such Madrid and Paris are yet to settle with Uber , and regulators in London are considering new laws that could impact Uber ’s operations in the city.
Uber has shut its doors in Frankfurt , according to Uber , closing the office after just 18 months of operation, meaning the company's only German presence is now in Munich and Berlin . The retreat is said to have come after local licensed taxi drivers in the city refused to work with Uber , and when the cheap UberPop service, similar to UberX, faced legal hurdles in Frankfurt and was eventually banned last March by German regulators. Uber ’s withdrawal from Hamburg is one of several retreats out of European cities by the firm in recent months : with service withdrawn from Madrid and Dusseldorf in recent months after less than two months in each of the German cities, and UberPop recently pulled in Dusseldorf . Meanwhile, licensed taxi drivers in cities such Madrid and Paris are yet to settle with Uber , and regulators in London are considering new laws that could impact Uber ’s operations in the city.