Brazil speaker wants city rules for Uber, other car-hailing apps

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The head of Brazil’s lower house of Congress said on Friday he hopes that the chamber will undo amendments by the Senate to a bill regulating ride-hailing apps such as Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL].

Speaker Rodrigo Maia told Reuters that car-hailing apps should be regulated by the municipal authorities of each city as proposed in an original bill passed by his chamber.

The bill amended by the Senate on Oct. 1 dropped requirements that drivers own their cars and use the same red license plates used by public taxis, which would class them as public transport subject to city permits.

Maia criticized the amendments, which still need to be approved by the chamber, saying that ride-hailing apps should be regulated by each city as taxis are or else they become unfair competition.

A federal law was good to allow ride hailing to exist within the law, but rules should be set by town councils and applied by municipal authorities according to each city’s needs, he said in an interview.

“I hope the house will vote the initial text without the Senate amendments,” Maia said. No date has been set for such a vote, he said.

Uber has said that the law, if approved in its original form, would undermine its ability to operate in Brazil, its second-biggest market, by making it too expensive and bureaucratic for many of its 500,000 drivers.