Germany’s highest court declined to hear a complaint by taxi app service Uber, regarding a ban on its operations in Hamburg, Reuters reports.
The Federal Constitutional Court on Friday said the Uber complaint was “not accepted for a choice due to lack of admissibility.” That basically means a death notice for Uber in that city.
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Hamburg’s transportation authority issued an injunction against Uber last July, saying its drivers didn’t have the proper permits to transport passengers, and later a local administrative court rejected Uber’s plea to remove the ban.
Uber has argued that its drivers didn’t need special permits, because the job they performed didn’t require special skills.
The San Francisco headquartered Uber, which has been valued at a whopping $40 billion in its latest round of investments, has touched a raw nerve in countless cities around the world, where the taxi business has been tightly managed by owners, politicians and bankers.
The German Constitutional Court’s decision cannot be appealed, and it might signal the beginning of the end for Uber in Europe’s largest economy.
“We take note of the court’s decision and decline further comment, ” an Uber spokesman said.
