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If pre-ordering is only an option - VSPV demands clear rules for Uber & Co.
The Association of Private Commercial Road Passenger Transport in North Rhine-Westphalia (VSPV) met in Berlin with Bundestag member Carsten Müller. Müller is currently the chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection. The discussion focused on consumer protection, fair competition, and the role of digital platforms in passenger transport.
VSPV Calls for More Consumer Protection in Pre-Bookings
For the association, the meeting was attended by Managing Director Sascha Waltemate and Patrick Meinhardt, General Authorized Signatory and Head of the Berlin Capital Office, at the event. At the center was a question that initially seems simple: What exactly does a consumer expect when they pre-book a ride via a platform?
From the VSPV's perspective, there is a fundamental misunderstanding here – especially with platform models like Uber. Many passengers assume that with the pre-booking a binding transportation contract has already been concluded. In reality, it is often merely a kind of reservation in the system: The platform commits to later attempting to arrange a driver.
Oh no! Acquaintances of Sascha Waltemate want to book Uber!
Sascha Waltemate described in an interview an example from his own circle. Acquaintances had wanted to plan a ride home after a concert. Instead of ordering the local taxi company, they opted for a pre-booking via Uber. The decisive factor was the initially displayed price: around 30 euros instead of nearly 100 euros for a pre-booked taxi ride.
However, in the evening itself a different picture emerged. No driver accepted the ride at that price. Because of the high demand, prices well over 200 euros were shown instead. The people affected ultimately had to order a taxi—and wait.
„Exactly in such cases, it becomes clear that there is a significant gap between the consumer's expectations and the actual functioning of some platform models. Those who pre-book a ride want reliability and not just an option for mediation. Consumer protection begins where business models not only function technically, but are also transparent and honest for the customer,” explains Waltemate.
No binding service booked, but only an option
Patrick Meinhardt likewise sees in this more than just a question of individual bookings.
“We are not talking here about a marginal issue, but about a fundamental question of fair market order,” says Meinhardt. “If the consumer believes they have purchased a binding service, but in reality only ends up in a dynamic mediation system without real price and service security, then that is at least something that needs to be explained. The legislator and the supervisory authorities must look very closely to see whether the offer presentation, contract formation and price formation still conform to what a reasonable consumer can expect.”
The association therefore regards the problem not only from a competition perspective but expressly as a question of consumer protection. A taxi company that accepts a pre-booking commits to carrying out the ride – under the tariff terms laid down. Platform-mediated rental car offers, however, often follow a different logic: The decisive factor is not the initially displayed price, but the market situation in the system at the time of actual mediation.
For many customers this difference remains unclear in everyday life. Only when a ride becomes more expensive at short notice or even fails to take place does it become evident that the original booking did not have the same binding commitment as a classic taxi order.
VSPV calls for clear rules
The VSPV therefore intends to continue engaging with the topic politically. From the association's perspective, clearer standards are needed for when a contract is actually formed in digital passenger transport, what binding effect price information has, and how platforms must present their offerings in a comprehensible way.
„We will continue to address these questions with renewed emphasis. Those who speak of digitization must not mean arbitrariness. Modern mobility requires innovation, but also reliability, fairness and effective protection of consumers. For the VSPV there is a simple principle: Doing is like talking – only much more intense“, explained Waltemate and Meinhardt.
The association subsequently thanked Carsten Müller for the open exchange in the German Bundestag. The debate on platform models in passenger transport, however, has only just begun. As mobility becomes more digital, the question of which rules for transparency and reliability should apply becomes increasingly important.
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