Andreas Solaro/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTaxi drivers in Rome staging a protest on Wednesday. Many across Europe complain that Uber does not comply with local licensing rules and fails to pay the same level of tax that conventional taxi owners and drivers do. Several of Europe's largest cities were snarled by traffic jams on Wednesday when thousands of taxi drivers blocked roads and held rallies in protest of an upstart American service that lets customers book rides through smartphones.
The target of their anger is Uber, the service that digitally links passengers and freelance drivers. Founded in 2009, the start-up has expanded beyond the United States to European cities including London, Paris and Berlin — all of them the scenes of Wednesday's protests.
Uber has caught on so quickly that big investors have been pouring money into the company, raising its value to $17 billion.
Taxi drivers in Europe, as in some United States cities, complain that Uber does not comply with local licensing rules and fails to pay the same level of tax that conventional taxi owners and drivers do.
In at least a half-dozen cities on Wednesday — the others include Lisbon, Milan and Madrid — drivers planned to block major roads in a show of anti-Uber force.
In France, hundreds of taxi drivers converged on Paris's two main airports, and Uber responded by announcing a 50 percent discount for rides on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon.
Many taxi drivers planned to mass at the École Militaire in central Paris later in the day as a government-appointed mediator prepared new legislation to deal with the conflict.
One proposal, which has the potential to challenge Uber's business model, would allow consumers in France to see only licensed taxis on an app that would be created by a government-run body called Etalab.
Unlicensed chauffer-driven vehicles would not appear on the app. In addition, Uber would no longer be allowed to show the location of its vehicles on its own app.
By 7 a.m. at Charles de Gaulle airport, taxi drivers drinking coffee and wearing yellow armbands had gathered to insist that Uber cabs be subject to the same regulations as they are.
Taxi drivers said they are angered that they pay 20 percent more in taxes than Uber chauffeurs, as well as a 10 percent value added tax on fares that is not required of Uber cars.
"Uber cabs are stealing our clients," said José Losada, 36. "We are regulated to death while they circumvent the law."
Not everyone was so strident. The goal was not to kill Uber — indeed, competition in the French market is necessary, said Por Chhavyvan, a taxi driver who was participating in her third demonstration this year against Uber. "All we want is better control," she said.
Before the protest in London, Uber said on Wednesday that it had opened up its booking platform so that the city's black taxis, which previously were not included in the start-up's system, could now take bookings through the smartphone app.
A similar service for licensed taxi drivers is also available in other cities, including New York, though no London black taxis were available on Uber's app on Wednesday morning. The start-up said that was because of high demand, though taxi groups said it was because their members would not sign up.
Uber is not yet available in Madrid and Lisbon, but local taxi drivers are protesting its pending start. Europe's taxi operators will demand that local lawmakers clamp down on the California-based Uber, which now operates in 100 cities in 36 countries.
"Everyone should play by the same rules," said Richard Leipold, the chairman of the Berlin Taxi Association. He won an injunction against Uber in the German capital in April, barring the company from operating there. But the injunction is not being enforced as Uber appeals the ruling.
Mr. Leipold plans to take part in the pan-European protest on Wednesday by driving his taxi along with more than 1,000 local operators slowly through central Berlin to the city's Olympic stadium.
"You can't have competition between someone who pays all their taxes and someone who doesn't," he said.
An Uber spokesman said the company paid the required amount of tax wherever it operated in Europe.
Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTaxis drivers blocked a highway outside Paris on Wednesday. The pushback against Uber highlights the tension between some of Europe's traditional industries that have barely changed in decades and the growing global influence of companies from Silicon Valley, for which disruptive technologies are badges of honor.
Europe's taxi drivers, who often have to pay the equivalent of thousands of dollars or more for their licenses to operate, say Uber is skirting local rules that are meant to protect customers. But Uber contends it offers competition where little has previously been available.
"In Paris, the number of taxis hasn't changed since the 1950s," said Pierre-Dimitry Gore-Coty, Uber's regional general manager for Northern Europe. "The strikes are an attempt to desperately fight against competition in the market."
Uber has faced a series of setbacks to its expansion plans internationally as well as in the United States. Some Uber drivers have accused the company of stealing their tips, while customers have sometimes complained about its so-called surge pricing, in which fares go up substantially during periods of high demand.
As Uber has been pushing its way into Europe, a number of cities have pushed back.
In Brussels, Uber was banned this year after a court ruled it did not have the appropriate permits to operate in the city. Uber drivers would face big fines if they picked up passengers through the company's app.
France has been one of Uber's toughest battlegrounds. Faced with protests by the powerful local taxi industry, which has been closed to competition for decades, the government in December sought to curb the rise of Uber and rival upstarts by forcing the car services to wait 15 minutes after receiving a request before picking up a client.
A French court reversed that rule in February, around the same time that 55,000 French taxi drivers unleashed a wave of strident demonstrations in which some blocked highways, hurled rocks and other objects at Uber vehicles, and even slashed Uber car tires to protest what they said was unfair competition.
An Uber user who experienced that unrest posted to her Twitter account around the beginning of the year:
Got attacked in an @uber by cab drivers on strike near Paris airport: smashed windows, flat tires, vandalized vehicle and bleeding hands.
— Kat Borlongan (@KatBorlongan) 13 Jan 14
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, called on Uber, taxi drivers and local regulators to discuss the issues, adding that "strikes don't solve anything."
The European Commission does not have the power to intervene, but Ms. Kroes, who in the past has vocally opposed Brussels's stance against the start-up, said operators and local regulators should find a way to bring Uber into cities' taxi operations.
"The commission is not saying Uber drivers should avoid taxes and rules, or put consumers at risk," she said. "What we are saying is that banning Uber does not give Uber drivers the chance to do the right thing."
In London, where the anti-Uber demonstration on Wednesday afternoon is planned in Trafalgar Square, local taxi drivers say the company, whose European headquarters are in the Netherlands, does not pay the required amount of British tax.
They also say the company's technology, which allows drivers to use a smartphone-like device to calculate fares based on time and distance, breaks local laws. The city's authorities have asked a local court to rule on that issue.
Partly, London taxi drivers resent the idea of G.P.S.-equipped freelancers presuming to practice their time-honored craft. Drivers of the British capital's iconic black taxis must pass an onerous exam called the Knowledge, which tests their understanding of London's labyrinthine city streets and can take up to five years to pass.
And yet many of London's taxi drivers said their protest was not meant to block competition but aimed at ensuring that Uber followed the local rules of the liveried road.
"This isn't an anti-American protest — I don't give a monkey's where they come from," said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Driver Association of London, who has been a driver for almost 30 years. "What they are doing is not legal, and it's not right."
Liz Alderman and Assia Labbas contributed reporting from Paris.
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