Uber can still operate in Las Vegas, a court decided

Oct 30, 2014 10:57 GMT  ·  By

The order that put a limitation on Uber’s Las Vegas activities has been lifted after a District Court judge ruled against the restraining order that was temporarily prohibiting it from operating in Clark County.

The troubles the company had in Las Vegas are nowhere near to being a one-time event. In fact, there have been protests and complaints from most areas where the company has expanded, mostly led by taxi drivers who have urged their lawmakers to regulate or ban such services.

The fact that these allow people to hire a private driver via a mobile app, rather than call a taxi company puts taxi operators in a difficult situation, where they claim their businesses have a lot to suffer. The fact that some of these rides can be shared by multiple individuals who are going in roughly the same direction and the bill can be split is also a big issue for taxi drivers.

One of the big arguments is that Uber’s background screening efforts aren’t efficient, citing several incidents where passengers were assaulted. The judge rebuked and said that no amount of screening is necessarily going to find every psychopath, while Uber’s lawyers pointed out that cab drivers have also been accused of committing violent crimes.

The office of Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has asked a judge to approve of an order prohibiting the service in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. Since other judges across the state have signed off without any qualms, it was expected for Uber’s presence in Las Vegas to be short lived too.

Uber – good competition for cab companies

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, however, that the District Judge Douglas Herndon refused, finding that there’s not enough evidence that Uber’s presence in Nevada will cause any lasting damage. Furthermore, the judge said he supports the competition between Uber and Las Vegas taxi companies.

Uber has launched an online petition to encourage Governor Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to stand against what they call the Big Taxi Cartel. They’ve also been promoting the #NVneedsUber hashtag on Twitter to help make it viral.

The state’s fight against Uber is far from over, however, and it’s not just Uber that is on the target list, but other services too, such as Lyft, Sidecar and more. They’ve all become quite popular across the United States and beyond its borders and they keep expanding to new locations.

Taxi companies and other transportation companies are protesting against them in the hopes that they’ll get to be shut down before they have any type of competition.