CEO of Uber Indicted By South Korean Court
Via a reader tip comes this article that explains how the Seoul government is trying to shutdown the ride sharing app Uber by indicting the company’s CEO:
South Korea has indicted the chief executive officer and local subsidiary of Uber Technologies Inc for violating a law governing public transport, becoming the latest jurisdiction to challenge the U.S. taxi service provider.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office issued the indictment against CEO Travis Kalanick and the firm’s Korean unit for violating a law prohibiting individuals or firms without appropriate licenses from providing or facilitating transportation services, an Uber spokeswoman said. [Fortune]
You can read the rest at the link, but the Seoul government has been trying to shut down Uber in Korea in order to protect their own taxi drivers and the domestic Daum-Kakao app that provides an Uber like service and is endorsed by the taxi union. This indictment is probably being used to scare Uber out of Korea. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Imagine a S. Korean prosecutor defending a foreign defendant during the indictment process, that would be on par with the common American prosecutors defending cops killing unarmed black teenagers. Send that Uber CEO to S. Korea for a taste of S. Korean justice, the world needs free entertainment.
Here is an article of interest that shows the problems Uber is facing in the US is the same in Korea, politicians limiting consumer choice to protect established interests:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/30/why-do-progressives-want-to-ban-uber-and-airbnb.html