Uber law in Romania: Parliament to regulate ridesharing platforms like Uber by imposing mandatory registration of local subsidiaries, special badges on cars

A draft bill submitted to the Romanian Senate seeks to regulate ridesharing platforms like Uber or Taxify by requiring their mandatory registration as local subsidiaries and a special badge on cars.

The law project was initiated by 49 MPs, almost all of whom are from the ruling coalition.

“If the platform operator is a company headquartered in another state, it is required to register and maintain for the entire period it operates in Romania a local subsidiary in order to be represented in its relation with Romanian fiscal authorities,” the project indicates.

The project also imposes special badges to be placed on Uber cars, maximum 15-years-old vehicles, licences for drivers (who have to be minimum 21 years old) and other conditions.

The law project is inspired by similar regulations already enacted in France, Italy or Portugal for ridesharing platforms.

According to the project authors, another type of regulation – like those in Belgium, Spain or Hungary -, that means extending taxi regulations in order to include ridesharing platforms, is not suitable for Romania.

Last year, the European Court of Justice issued a decision saying that services such as Uber are transport firms, which it defined as ‘non-public urban transport services’ and that each member state should regulate these services at a national level.

In July, Uber Romania confirmed for Business Review that is has been supporting its local partners with obtaining transportation licenses. Under current regulations, transport operators involved in passenger transport activities must hold a valid transportation license.

A prior bill draft proposed in the Romanian Senate aimed to regulate ride sharing services by creating a new transportation category, similar to regulations in Lithuania, Estonia and the US.