Courtesy of Mark Warner
The Philadelphia taxi union withdrew their lawsuit against ridesharing services, like Lyft and Uber, because both parties agreed to a legislation passed by PA Gov. Tom Wolf.
Leaders of the city’s taxi union announced their plan to withdraw their lawsuit against the Philadelphia Parking Authority filed in July over allegations that it unequally enforced regulations on rideshare services, according to The Legal Intelligencer.
Earlier this month, the plaintiffs in Blount v. Philadelphia Parking Authority declared that the dismissal of the case was in response to the new legislation Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf passed in early November of last year.
“If the PPA enforces the regulations as written, there shouldn’t be any issues,” said attorney Edward Millstein, who represented President of the Taxi Worker’s Alliance of Pennsylvania Ronald Blount.
Martin O’Rourke, a spokesman for the PPA, agreed.
“The plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction was withdrawn because the parties agreed that with the passage of Act 164, legalizing TNCs [transportation network companies] in Philadelphia, there was no longer any reason to continue pursuing an injunction against those TNC operations,” O’Rourke said in an emailed statement according to The Legal Intelligencer.
Along with officially authorizing the use of ride-sharing services within the state and providing regulations under which they must operate, the legislation declared that 1.4 percent of revenue collected from rides in Philadelphia would be distributed to the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the School District of Philadelphia.
“This is a victory for Philadelphia’s consumers, but it is also a victory for our schools. I am very proud that the majority of the tax revenue generated by ride-sharing will go to the Philadelphia School District,” Pennsylvania Senator Hughes said according to Gov. Wolf’s website.
Blount expressed his fear that taxi services will go out of business in the face of their ride-sharing competitors like Uber and Lyft in a filing in September that dealt with the unequal enforcement of regulations on Philadelphia taxicabs and transportation network companies, as reported by The Legal Intelligencer.
“Unless immediate relief is provided, it is likely the Philadelphia taxicab industry including plaintiffs will be bankrupted and completely decimated,” Blount said.
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