For the company’s directors, the bill that seeks to regulate the operation in Panama generates “more uncertainty and affects the investment of multinational companies.”

On September 9, a bill was presented to the National Assembly to amend “Executive Decree No. 331 of October 31, 2017,” by which it is intended to impose requirements on drivers who provide the transport service through the Uber platform.

The use of an operation certificate, the identification of the car with Uber‘s logo and the fact that the driver has an E1 type license, are other proposals that the bill presented to the Assembly compiles. See full bill.

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Regarding the proposal, Gabriel Gutierrez, manager of Uber in Panama, explained to Martesfinanciero.com that “… The situation is quite worrying for Uber because of the legal uncertainty in which we are currently. We were not included, and although we were already regulated in October 2017 with a decree that was not ideal, since it includes geographic restrictions to operate and limits to collect cash, we have been operating within that regulatory framework.”

Gutierrez added that “… The regulation has several sensitive points. First of all, it says that it is a regulation for the Uber system, but a law cannot go against a particular company; industries must be regulated. Second, Uber is being ‘taxified’ because drivers are forced to paint the cars and place the logo, the driving partners are completely at odds with this measure. These are private cars. And thirdly, we are being limited and restricting operations even more because before we were allowed to operate in Arraijan, in La Chorrera, in all of Panama City and in Colón, but with this draft we could only operate in Panama City.”