In a ruling dated 9 April 2025 (no. 23-22.122), the commercial chamber of the Court of Cassation partially censured a decision ordering Uber France to compensate taxi drivers for economic damage resulting from the launch of the ‘UberPop’ service. Economic damage can only be compensated if it is effectively proven.

UberPop: a transport service between individuals in violation of regulations

Between February 2014 and July 2015, Uber France developed a service to connect passengers and non-professional drivers via the UberPop application. This activity, carried out without respect for the regulations applicable to paid transport, led to a wave of litigation.

More than a hundred taxi drivers then sued Uber France for unfair competition, due to the economic disruption and the breach of equality generated by this illegal service.

A disputed evaluation method… but validated in principle

Uber challenges the calculation method used by the Court of Appeal, which based the assessment of the damage on the undue advantage gained by UberPop, adjusted according to the business volumes of the affected parties. The company argues that this is tantamount to granting compensation to drivers who have not demonstrated an actual loss.

The Court of Cassation rejects this criticism in principle: when an unfair practice allows its perpetrator to avoid a normally mandatory cost (in this case, compliance with transport regulations), it is permissible for the damage to be assessed on the basis of this unlawful competitive advantage, if direct evidence is lacking and obtaining it would require disproportionate means.

For the Court of Cassation:

‘By adjusting in proportion to the respective turnovers of the parties affected by such acts, this method of assessing damages cannot have the effect of leading to an assessment of damages owed to the victim that would exceed the undue advantage granted to the perpetrator of these acts.

It aims to facilitate the effective compensation of victims of certain acts of unfair or parasitic competition when they encounter difficulties in proving their loss.

As a result, this method does not aim to place the victim in the situation they would have been in if they had resorted to the same unfair methods.’

The absence of economic loss for taxi drivers

The court of appeal had noted that:

• UberPop customers had a different profile to that of taxi customers;
• The turnover of the taxi sector had not fallen during the period of operation of UberPop;
• Taxis were structurally unable to meet the entire demand.

However, the Court of Appeal had nevertheless recognised the existence of economic damage, taking into account the unfair advantage resulting from this breach of equality, namely the savings in charges made by an UberPop driver by not respecting the regulations, adjusted in proportion to the respective business volumes of the parties.

The Court of Cassation overturned the appeal ruling for having granted economic compensation without establishing actual damage. Economic damage cannot be presumed: it must result from an actual loss or a missed opportunity.

The only irrefutably presumed damage remains moral damage (related, for example, to damage to image or professional honour), which the court of appeal had already compensated elsewhere.

For the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeal had ultimately found no loss of income, no diversion of customers, and no loss of earnings for the taxi drivers. It could not therefore compensate individually for economic damage arising from the market disruption.

In conclusion:

• an unlawful practice can be compensated on the basis of an undue competitive advantage, but only if economic damage is proven.
• The method of assessment by undue advantage is accepted, but it cannot be a substitute for the demonstration of economic damage.
• Disruption of the market is not sufficient to give entitlement to economic compensation in an individual dispute.

This article was written by Olivier VIBERT, a lawyer at the Paris Bar and a partner in KBESTAN, a business law firm in Evreux and Paris.

www.kbestan.fr