PARIS, June 25 (UPI) -- French taxi drivers blocked access to airports and snarled traffic around Paris Thursday, demanding the government enforce the law against unlicensed UberPOP drivers.
Road access to Paris' Charles de Gaullle Airport was blocked as was access to Orly airport and multiple train stations.
Photos posted to social media showed cars being overturned, broken bottles and small fires in the streets and travelers walking to airports with their bags. Riot police attempted to use tear gas and batons to defuse the situation.
Under a new law that took effect Jan. 1, UberPOP is illegal, and drivers could face up to two years in prison and up to a €300,000 fine. Although 420 people have been caught by special police units known as "Les Boers", Uber has expanded its service into Marseille, Nantes and Strasbourg, and court injunctions against Uber have yet to be levied by French courts.
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In the interim, UberPOP customers and drivers alike have been attacked for their use of the service.
Upon its expansion into Marseille, UberPOP's headquarters was blockaded by taxi drivers, accompanied by flyers that explained their cause and tires lit up in flames on the streets.
UberPOP customer Alexandre Berlin of Lyon said he was injured by taxi drivers after leaving a club at night, when he resorted to UberPOP after a taxi on strike refused to give him a ride.
On the same evening, an UberPOP driver had his car vandalized.
Additionally, drivers have allegedly lured UberPOP drivers into traps by signing in to the app and requesting a ride.
Although managed by the same California-based company, the UberPOP service differs from the regular Uber service in that drivers do not need to have a professional license to work, meaning anyone with a driver's license and a smartphone can begin chauffeuring.
UberPOP was launched in February 2014 and is is a sharp contrast to France's taxi drivers, who must pay a hefty €230,000 for a taxi license. It differs legally from the company's Uber service in France, which consists of private hire cabs.
Though the National Federation of Taxi Drivers has called for calm among its constituents, the taxi industry's profits have fallen by almost 40 percent in the last two years. One taxi driver reported feeling trapped by the burgeoning company, which operates in 58 countries and claims more than a million customers in France.
