France’s interior minister, in a bid to halt a day of sometimes violent protests by taxi drivers angered by Uber’s low-cost UberPop service, said Thursday that the app-based business must be shut down. He said orders would be given to seize vehicles.
Bernard Cazeneuve’s announcement came after striking taxi drivers angered at a loss of income caused by cheap services including UberPop blocked highways, burned tires and smashed cars around France.
Riot police chased strikers from Paris’ ring road, where protesters torched tires in the middle of the roadway and swarmed onto exit ramps at rush hour.
Cazeneuve met with taxi union representatives before the announcement in a bid to restore order. He said 70 vehicles were damaged, seven police officers injured and 10 arrests made on Thursday, when 30 legal complaints were filed against UberPop.
Among those caught up in the protests was singer Courtney Love, who tweeted her frustration, saying her ride from the airport was ambushed and she was rescued by two men on a motorcycle.
“They’re beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I’m safer in Baghdad,” Love tweeted.
Cazeneuve said he would meet with UberPop officials to tell them their service “is illegal.”
“It must, therefore, be closed,” he said. “The government will never accept the law of the jungle.”
Uber says it has 400,000 customers a month in France and has expanded UberPop in French cities.
— Associated Press
T-Mobile on Thursday announced a phone upgrading program, called Jump! On Demand, which allows customers to upgrade their devices more than once per year. In fact, they can upgrade their phones up to three times per year. The program will launch Sunday.
The program is an amped-up version of the company’s current phone upgrading plan, Jump, which T-Mobile is keeping. That $10-per-month program lets customers turn in their old phones for a new one every year, or after they’ve paid off at least half of the device — and it comes with insurance for the device. By contrast, Jump! On Demand is free and does not include insurance. Customers must pay $8 per month for insurance.
Consumers are also on the hook for the cost of the device and a plan. Those coming to T-Mobile have to pay the full price of a device — for an iPhone 6, that’s $649. But the company does not lock anyone into a two-year contract.
About 10 million people are enrolled in the Jump program, said Terry Hayes, T-Mobile’s vice-president for the Northeast. The average T-Mobile customer switches phones once every 20 months, he said. Jump customers tend to shake things up once every 18 months.
— Hayley Tsukayama
● An estimated 41.9 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home during the Independence Day weekend, up 0.7 percent from last year and the most since 2007, right before the recession, according to travel agency and car lobbying group AAA. As usual, the majority of travelers will be using their cars: about 85 percent. Gas costs $2.78 a gallon nationwide, down 88 cents from the same time last year.
● Lululemon Athletica, which was hit by a high-profile recall of overly sheer yoga pants in 2013, is recalling the drawstrings on more than 300,000 women’s tops because of the risk of injury. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada posted the joint recall with Vancouver-based Lululemon. According to the recall, the elastic draw cord, with hard plastic or metal tips in the neck area of some tops, can snap back and cause injury if it is pulled.
● Nike reported a better-than-expected profit for the eighth quarter in a row as it sold more high-margin basketball shoes and apparel at higher prices. Nike’s Jordan, LeBron, Kobe and KD basketball shoe brands have been especially popular in the United States, helping drive sales for the company’s footwear division. Nike’s net income rose 24 percent, to $865 million, or
98 cents per share, while
revenue rose 4.8 percent, to
$7.78 billion.
● Consumer spending surged 0.9 percent last month, up from a revised 0.1 percent increase in April, the biggest monthly increase in nearly six years, the Commerce Department said. May spending registered the biggest gain since August 2009, when the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program fueled auto-buying. Personal income also increased a healthy 0.5 percent. The savings rate for after-tax income fell slightly to 5.1 percent from 5.4 percent.
— From news services
