Barcelona taxi restrictions relaxed for world’s biggest telecoms conference

Catalonia’s regional government is addressing the problem of long queues for taxis at the world’s biggest telecoms conference, which starts in Barcelona on Monday, by relaxing restrictions on ride-hailing companies like Uber and Cabify.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) expects to attract about 80,000 delegates from across the world this year but in the past there have been long queues for cabs outside the venue.

Catalan authorities have relaxed rules so ride-hailing cabs from across Spain can operate in Barcelona between February 24 and March 7. In September last year, Spain’s regional governments were told by the central government to issue new rules for private cars transporting passengers hired through mobile platforms such as Uber, Bolt and local rival Cabify, after protests from taxi drivers over unfair competition.

Some regions, such as Madrid and Andalusia, allowed the drivers to continue to operate as before, but others, such as Barcelona, introduced more restrictive measures.

A spokesman for the Catalan government said an exception has been introduced at the request of Barcelona council for these ride-hailing cabs to provide services for ten days. — Reuters

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