Ride hailing service Uber has been stripped of its licence in London — for the second time — after the city’s transport authority found that at least 14,000 trips were taken with drivers who had faked their identity on Uber’s app. Transport for London (TfL) said that Uber is not a “fit and proper” company to operate in the city. Uber has confirmed that it will appeal the decision, and hasn't categorically denied TfL's accusations. London is among Uber's top 5 markets globally, with about 45,000 drivers in the city. MediaNama has reached out to Uber for comment. Why this matters: The company has been here before. TfL had previously rejected Uber’s licence renewal in September 2017 but, in September 2018, an appeals court granted Uber a 15-month provisional licence. Then in September 2019, its licence was renewed by 2 more months even though Uber was looking to secure a 5-year long licence. This renewal came after TfL placed imposed some conditions on the cab aggregator such as reporting criminal passenger complaints to the Metropolitan Police and adding three non-executive directors to its board. TfL's issues with Uber: The transport regulator said that it has identified a “pattern of failures” by the company including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk. It is concerned that Uber's systems seem to have been easily manipulated, and TfL doesn’t have the “confidence” that such issues will not happen again in the future. It found that unauthorised drivers could upload their photos to other…
