Don’t worry, the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s partial suspension of Uber’s New York City operation will not affect your ride. Now that that’s out of the way: On Tuesday, an administrative court shut down five of Uber’s six dispatch sites (or “bases”) as punishment for the car-service app’s refusal to provide several months of electronic records, including “the date of trip[s], time of trip[s], pick up location[s], and license numbers.”
The TLC recently began requiring all cab operators to routinely hand over trip data, instead of waiting for the commission to specifically ask for it. Despite having shared such information in the past, Uber has been fighting the TLC since October by claiming that the request is a demand for trade secrets. (Lyft and everyone else has complied.) “The bases will not be allowed to legally operate until they comply and each pay [a] $200 fine,” the New York Business Journal reports.
A company spokesperson insisted that they are “continuing a dialogue with the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission on these issues,” while a TLC spokesperson said, “There’s no open dialogue of which I am aware.” In the meantime, Uber is working around the problem by simply routing all its business through its one remaining station.
