Romania prepares to regulate, not ban ridesharing services

Ridesharing or alternative transport platforms such as Uber will have to register in Romania and report each order to the authorities. At the same time, the cars will have to have a special badge, and the platforms, as well as the drivers, will pay an annual fee, under a bill passed by the Senate's expert committee, Profit.ro reported.

The Government also supports the bill. The decision to regulate the ridesharing services comes in the context when the Government has already drafted an emergency ordinance that regulates taxi transport and outlaws both Uber and Taxify / Bolt.

Politicians, including some from the ruling coalition, have argued in favor of postponing the project's adoption to first introduce the legal framework for ridesharing services.

The draft passed by the Senate’s expert committee sets the obligation to license the operator who owns the ridesharing platforms, the machines performing this service and the drivers driving them, to “level this type of requirements with those of the taxi industry."

(Photo: courtesy of Uber)