A group of taxi drivers gathered outside the office of ride-hailing platform Martı TAG in Istanbul’s Maslak business district on Thursday afternoon, bringing traffic in the area to a halt, Turkish media reported.
TR TV said the group assembled in front of Martı’s office on Büyükdere Caddesi and that traffic on the street stopped. Police teams were sent to the scene after a report of tension in the area, it said. Son Dakika also reported that the protesting drivers blocked traffic and that the area came to a standstill. Neither outlet gave the number of people involved or reported any detentions.
Appeals court ruling
The protest followed a court decision in a lawsuit that taxi organisations brought against the platform. According to Son Dakika and Karar, the unfair competition case was filed by more than ten taxi associations, including the Istanbul Otomobilciler Esnaf Odası and the Antalya Şoförler ve Otomobilciler Odası, and had been running for about four years.
Karar reported that the Istanbul 14th Regional Court of Appeal ruled that a court cannot ban a commercial activity that the legislature, or an authority acting under the law, has not prohibited or made subject to a licence or permit. The court treated the platform’s operation as falling under freedom of enterprise and said regulating urban transport was a matter for new legislation, Karar said. Son Dakika reported the same reasoning.
Next step disputed
Son Dakika said the court had rejected the case the previous week. Karar reported that the case is going to the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) and that the Istanbul taxi drivers’ chamber İTEO says there is no final ruling yet.
Sources
- İstanbul’da taksiciler eylemde! Martı TAG’ın ofisi önünde toplanıyorlar (Son Dakika)
- İstanbul’da taksici olduğu iddia edilen grup, Martı’nın Maslak ofisi önünde toplandı (TR TV)
- Martı TAG yasallaştı mı? Martı TAG davasını kim kazandı? (Karar)
Photo: Jackmaldow / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
