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Economy

Uber And Taxis Have A Common Enemy: Say Hello To Heetch

Car-sharing in France has gotten complicated. Though Uber was forced to shut down its amateur driver service UberPop, another app is antagonizing competitors by continuing to operate, and working with "suggested" prices.

Heetch team (top left), ride (top right) and users (bottom)
Heetch team (top left), ride (top right) and users (bottom)
Lionel Steinmann

PARIS — French taxi companies and Uber are still as much at each other's throats as they were back in mid-2015 during violent protests that shocked the country — with more clashes reported Tuesday.

But the two competing interests have since discovered that they have something in common: Both are alarmed by the rise of Heetch, a French ride-sharing app launched in 2013. Both accuse the new service of unfair competition.

Heetch is based on a model similar to that of Uber. It connects clients with non-professional drivers using their own cars, but with a little twist: It only operates between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and at the end of the ride there is a suggested price that users are free to augment. Heetch was targeted by a national decree that banned Uber's app UberPOP. But the company has refused to be painted with the same brush, continuing its business despite the arrests of some of its hobbyist drivers. And it has built itself a growing customer base that has taxis and other driving services equally worried.

"Heetch continues to provide illegal transportation disguised as a car-sharing service, despite the decision of the Constitutional Council," a joint statement of taxi drivers released Jan. 7 said. They believe the company is illegally cutting into their business, along with similar services such as Chauffeur-privé. Right now Heetch is the second most-downloaded transportation app on Apple's App Store, behind Uber.

These companies are clearly worried about the prospect of losing revenue during the night, when Heetch is operational. But it goes deeper than. Some private drivers for Uber and others services — and many traditional taxi drivers too — are double-dipping, operating on the Heetch platform as well, an Uber France spokesman claims. That means diluting the availability of cars available for Uber and taxi clients.

Co-founder and CEO Teddy Pellerin keeps a low profile. "Our activity isn't exploding as much as some people want to believe," he says. Heetch now claims 50,000 rides a week*, compared to 40,000 in June 2015. But the app is now beginning to expand abroad, launching in Warsaw in mid-December. And at least one other European capital is expected to follow in the first quarter of this year.

Pellerin also maintains that Heetch is legal, because it doesn't provide a transportation service for a precise fee, he says. The price is only suggested. "Passengers are totally free to pay whatever they want at the end of the ride," he says. "And our drivers' income is limited to 6,000 euros ($6,500) per year, which is the average annual cost for their cars." In 2015, their average income was 1,850 euros ($2,000).

The argument doesn't convince Yves Weisselberger, founder of SnapCar. "Heetch does the same job as us, except their costs are twice as low because they don't pay any taxes," he says. "I don't want this app to be shut down, but the government needs to clearly say at some point what's allowed and what isn't."

*Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated the number of rides Heetch reports. It is 50,000 rides per week, not per day. Sorry.

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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