The Paris offices of ride-hailing company Uber have been raided by French police, according to the Telegraph.
The company — which produces an app that lets users call for a variety of rides via an app — frequently courts controversy. It's technically illegal in France, but it continues to operate openly in Paris. Uber frequently expands into regions where it does not yet have regulatory approval, mobilising its customer base to act as a de facto lobbying group for its services.
In France it has drawn protests from the established taxi industry, as has also happened in London and elsewhere.
The Local FR reports that Uber has denounced the raid as an "attempt at intimidation." According to the French news site, the company was "targeted at the request of the Paris prosecutor's office."
An Uber spokesperson provided Business Insider with the following statement:
On Monday 16 March 2015, officers attended Uber’s premises in Paris, in the context of an investigation into uberPOP, the ridesharing platform. The exact reason for this visit remains unclear, but Uber remains confident that the investigation into uberPOP is built on a piece of legislation called Loi Thévenoud, against which Uber has filed two complaints with the European Commission so as to establish its inconsistency with EU law.
While reaffirming its commitment to transparency and to continue working positively with the French authorities, Uber takes note of this raid and is more than ever determined to vigorously defend the rights conferred upon it by EU law and the French Constitution. The police visit came 48 hours after the supreme court referred two key provisions of the Thévenoud law to the Constitutional Court.
