PARIS, June 29 (UPI) -- Two executives of the ride-sharing company Uber were arrested in Paris Monday and charged with 'illicit activity."
Following a police raid on Uber's Paris office in March, Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal and Uber Europe General Manager Pierre-Dmitri Gore-Coty were taken into custody. Simphal and Gore-Coty claim the charge involves illegal taxi operations, but police said the company is hiding digital documents.
Uber's business is connecting drivers with passengers, and France's taxi drivers have reacted with strikes and violence. Seventy vehicles were damaged in protests last week by taxi drivers angered by the company's least expensive service, UberPOP, under which anyone with a car and a driver's license can be registered as an Uber driver.
The taxi drivers claim Uber drivers need not pay the same taxes or pass the same certification tests as they must, and thus are stealing taxi drivers' livelihoods. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered UberPOP shut down last week after the protests, calling the service illegal.
