Uber fighting to survive in London after losing its license

LONDON — Uber suffered a major blow Monday after London transportation authorities made a surprise decision to not extend its taxi operating license because of persistent safety problems, throwing into question whether the company can continue operating in its most lucrative European market.

The decision will not immediately affect Uber’s presence on London streets. The ride-hailing company said it would appeal the decision, setting off what could be a long legal process. Uber can continue to operate throughout that time.

But the news adds to a difficult year for the company, which staged a disappointing initial public offering in May. Uber has since experienced executive turnover, had several rounds of layoffs and faces continued public scrutiny over the safety of its passengers.

Transport for London, which regulates taxi and private hire services in the city, said Uber did not meet the “fit and proper” standard needed to hold a taxi license. Regulators said Uber had a pattern of failures that placed passenger safety at risk, including vulnerabilities in Uber’s app that allowed unauthorized drivers to carry thousands of riders.

“It is clearly concerning that these issues arose, but it is also concerning that we cannot be confident that similar issues won’t happen again,” Helen Chapman, director of licensing, regulation and charging at Transport for London, said in a statement.

In 2017, authorities in London also revoked Uber’s license for, among other reasons, poor oversight of drivers. Uber appealed the decision and was granted a 15month license after it agreed to more government supervision and several policy changes, including adopting rules on how to report incidents to police, keeping tired drivers off the road and naming a new independent board to oversee British operations.

City authorities acknowledged that Uber “has made a number of positive changes and improvement to its culture, leadership and systems,” but said it had not gone far enough. The company’s license was due to expire at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

Uber said in a statement that it would operate as normal while it appealed the decision, which it called “extraordinary and wrong.”