PARIS?Uber Technologies Inc. and other car-service companies on Friday decried French government plans to further crack down on their businesses in the wake of a three-day strike by taxi drivers. Following days of meetings with taxi unions to lift a strike that snarled the French capital, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Friday that the government will send letters formally reminding car-service apps that they must conform to a strict new transport law passed in 2014 in the wake of another series of taxi strikes. "Platforms that don't conform to the rules will be punished and will have to cease operation and close their sites," Mr. Valls said in a communiqué . Taxi companies were cautiously optimistic about the announcement, and ended their blockages of streets on the city's ring-road highway and in front of the country's finance ministry. But Uber and other car-service apps shot back, saying the government measures would force them to significantly pare back their number of drivers and hobble their operation. "These measures, if applied, will lead to the destruction of 12,000 jobs in France," said Mark MacGann, Uber's public policy chief in Europe. Dave Ashton, co-founder of competing car-service app SnapCar, went further, saying that they are unenforceable and would "create black market demand so significant that it would put transport into anarchy." The back and forth presages more conflict over Uber and other online apps in France, one of the largest in Europe for big tech firms. Highly connected French consumers have been quick to adopt new services like Uber or Airbnb Inc. that rely on the so-called sharing economy to break into highly regulated industries. But the country's government has also been quick to assert the right to regulate the new businesses, causing unexpected problems for the newcomers. Last July, for instance, Uber decided to shutter its service that used drivers without professional licenses in France, after the government indicted two Uber executives for violating taxi laws. Earlier this month, the government also indicted creators of a French app that also used nonprofessional drivers. Several elements of Friday's announcement could now cause problems for car-hailing apps that use professionally licensed drivers. The government said that it will force car-hailing apps to stop using a little-known transport-licensing provision for vehicles used to transport eight or fewer people, called LOTI, rather than the official car-service licenses called VTC. App makers say between 20% and 30% of their drivers currently use the LOTI provisions because it has been made difficult to get a VTC license. The government also said it would enforce a provision of the 2014 law that would force drivers for the apps to return to a garage between each fare if they don't already have a reservation in hand. App providers say that such a rule would cut drivers' revenue so significantly as to make it impossible for them to make money. Taxi drivers and companies say they will be watching closely to make sure the government follows through on its announced crackdown. "This is a good beginning but it's far from over," one taxi executive said Friday. "There have in the past been a lot of promises that haven't been kept." Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
On Friday Uber criticised plans by the French Government to crack down on ride-sharing in the wake of a three day strike by taxi drivers. Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced on Friday that the government will send letters formally reminding car-service apps that they must conform to a strict new transport law passed in 2014 in the wake of another series of taxi strikes. "Platforms that don't conform to the rules will be punished and will have to cease operation and close their sites," Mr. Valls said. However, Uber’s European policy chief stated the measures will lead to the “destruction” of 12,000 French jobs.