Uber leads to more unemployment, Brazil’s president says

Brazil’s president said on Wednesday that ride-hailing service Uber leads to unemployment, but shouldn’t be regulated by the country’s federal government.

“Uber is complicated because it takes jobs away from people… It leaves taxis with less work,” President Dilma Rousseff said, according to Reuters. “It’s not an easy issue. It depends on the rules of each city and state, because it is not a federal government decision.”

{mosads}Her comments come after Sao Paulo and Brasilia, the country’s capital city, took steps to ban Uber. The mayors of both cities have not yet approved the policies.

This summer brought protests by taxi drivers against the service in Rio de Janeiro, where the city council has suggested a law that would effectively shut down Uber in the city. During the protests, more than one thousand drivers parked their cars along the sides of one of the city’s main streets. Uber offered free rides in the city that day.

The company has faced resistance as it has looked to expand globally.

Two Uber executives detained earlier this year in Paris for running an illegal taxi service are expected to appear at trial this fall. The company also suspended UberPOP — its low-cost offering in Europe — in Paris because of protests.

This week, it launched a version of UberX in Brussels that requires drivers to have chauffeur licenses. An executive for the startup in Belgium said the company hopes to continue running UberPOP, which uses unlicensed drivers. But concerns about protests were severe enough that the company did not announce the location of a press conference regarding UberX until the last minute, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Uber has faced numerous challenges from regulators around the world, as it has become the most valuable venture-capital-backed startup in America. The company is now reportedly valued at close to $51 billion.