Uber suspends operations in Vienna after court ruling

Ride-hailing service Uber said it was suspending operations in Vienna today after a court upheld a complaint against its business practices brought by a local taxi company.

Uber's Austrian arm said in a statement: "Sadly today's decision by Vienna's commercial court for now does not allow us to offer our services UberX, UberBLACK and uberVAN in Vienna".

But it added that "we are working intensively to change our practices, in order to be able to offer our services to you again within a few days".

The complaint against Uber was brought by the Taxi 40100 company.

It said Uber represented unfair competition as it did not have to abide by the same rules as traditional taxi companies for picking up passengers.

"We're delighted with the court's decision," said Taxi 40100 head Christian Holzhauser.

Ride-hailing services have met with protests from taxi drivers in numerous cities and varying levels of resistance from authorities around the world. Earlier this month, Uber had to suspend one of its services in Greece after tighter rules on the sector were introduced, while in March it had to suspend operations in the Slovakian capital Bratislava.