(单词翻译:单击)
LONDON — The ride-hailing startup company Uber won a major victory in Germany on Tuesday after a local court overturned a nationwide ban that had barred the company from operating its popular car-sharing service.
伦敦——叫车软件初创公司Uber周二在德国赢得一场关键胜利,此前一项全德范围内禁用该公司热门的拼车服务的禁令,被一家地方法院推翻。
The court's decision follows vocal opposition to Uber from taxi associations across Europe, which accuse the company of breaking local laws.
此次判决出台前,出租车协会对Uber的抗议已经遍布全欧,他们指责该公司违反了地方法律。
Yet in its ruling Tuesday, the court in Frankfurt, Germany, announced that Uber, which is based in San Francisco, could continue to operate in Germany.
而周二德国法兰克福的这家法院则裁定,Uber,这家总部位于旧金山的美国公司,可以继续在德国经营。
The judges were sympathetic to the arguments of Taxi Deutschland, a trade body that had brought the initial case against Uber, claiming that the service competed unfairly with local taxis, said Arne Hasse, a spokesman for the Frankfurt court.
法官们对德国出租车协会(Taxi Deutschland)的观点表示了同情,正是该贸易组织最先对Uber提出控告,称该公司的服务是在与当地出租车司机进行不公平竞争,法兰克福法院的发言人阿尼·哈斯(Arne Hasse)说。
But he said that while the association was right in bringing the case and requesting the injunction, the group had waited too long to file the case, and therefore the injunction had to be lifted.
但哈斯说,尽管出租车协会提出控告并要求禁令是正确的,但该组织等了太久才正式提出诉讼,因此禁令不得不被解除。
Taxi Deutschland said that it still believed that Uber was acting unlawfully and that it would appeal the decision in the coming month.
德国出租车协会称,它仍相信Uber的行为是非法的,并将在下个月对该判决提出上诉。
“Uber stands for a particularly extreme form of wage dumping, which refuses to allow for any minimum wage,” Dieter Schlenker, Taxi Deutschland's chairman, said in a statement. “We hope that politicians will steer the taxi clearly into the future and won't let the USA firms put any ideas in their heads.”
“Uber代表的是十分极端的一种工资倾销,以此拒绝接受任何最低工资标准,”德国出租车协会主席迪特尔·施伦克(Dieter Schlenker)在一份声明中说。“我们希望政界人士能将出租车行业引向未来,而不是让美国公司们往他们脑子里灌输各种想法。”
The dispute concerns Uber's low-cost UberPop product, which connects drivers with customers through a smartphone application. The initial ruling, on Sept. 2, said that the service competed unfairly with local taxis, and that Uber did not provide the necessary licenses and insurance for its drivers.
这次争端围绕的是Uber的低端产品UberPop,该产品将司机与乘客通过智能手机软件相连接。9月2日的一审裁定称该服务与当地出租车司机进行了不公平竞争,而且Uber也没有为司机提供必须的牌照和保险。
Uber faced fines in Germany of up to 250,000 euros (about $330,000) or a jail term of up to six month for a local employee if it violated the temporary injunction. Uber drivers, who are not employees, did not face direct penalties.
Uber如果违反这个临时禁令,将在德国面临25万欧元的罚款,公司在当地的一名雇员可能面临最多六个月的监禁。使用Uber软件的司机不是雇员,不会受到直接处罚。
The company previously said that it would continue to operate in Germany despite the legal uncertainty.
Uber公司曾表示,尽管面临法律上的不确定性,但公司还将继续在德国运营。
“This is an industry that doesn't want to see competition,” Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber's regional general manager for northern Europe, said in an interview before the court decision was announced Tuesday. “Incumbents will try to find any legal way to stop companies like Uber from competing.”
周二法庭做出裁决之前,Uber在欧洲北部的地区总经理皮埃尔-迪米特利·戈尔-科蒂接受采访说:“这个行业不愿看到竞争,已经占据市场的人会寻找任何法律途径阻止Uber这样的公司参与竞争。”