<p>App-based taxi service Uber has been ordered to pay up to 20 million euros ($21.7 million) compensation to drivers in the French city of Lyon, their lawyer Stephane Teyssier said on Friday.</p>.<p>The court ruled on the basis of a Court of Cassation decision from January 2020 that Uber drivers should be considered as employees rather than as self-employed.</p>.<p>"Uber was ordered to amend the contracts of 139 drivers at a cost of 17 to 20 million euros," Teyssier told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>"A penalty on that scale is exceptional in France," he added.</p>.<p>The US firm, which has some 30,000 drivers using its platform in France, told <em>AFP</em> it intended to appeal.</p>.<p>Drivers in Lyon, France's third largest city, had taken the ride-hailing taxi giant before an employment tribunal to have their work relationship reclassified as an employment contract.</p>.<p>This is the latest in several setbacks of its kind for Uber.</p>.<p>In March 2021, Britain's Supreme Court also classified Uber drivers as employees, rejecting the Silicon Valley company's contention that the drivers should be categorised as self-employed.</p>.<p>An Uber spokesman told <em>AFP</em> on Friday it rejected the French employment tribunal's decision.</p>.<p>"This decision goes against the widely shared view of labour courts and appeal courts that drivers using the (Uber) app are self-employed," he said.</p>.<p>"Drivers have no obligation to work, are not exclusively tied to Uber and are entirely free to organise their work as they choose," he said.</p>
<p>App-based taxi service Uber has been ordered to pay up to 20 million euros ($21.7 million) compensation to drivers in the French city of Lyon, their lawyer Stephane Teyssier said on Friday.</p>.<p>The court ruled on the basis of a Court of Cassation decision from January 2020 that Uber drivers should be considered as employees rather than as self-employed.</p>.<p>"Uber was ordered to amend the contracts of 139 drivers at a cost of 17 to 20 million euros," Teyssier told <em>AFP.</em></p>.<p>"A penalty on that scale is exceptional in France," he added.</p>.<p>The US firm, which has some 30,000 drivers using its platform in France, told <em>AFP</em> it intended to appeal.</p>.<p>Drivers in Lyon, France's third largest city, had taken the ride-hailing taxi giant before an employment tribunal to have their work relationship reclassified as an employment contract.</p>.<p>This is the latest in several setbacks of its kind for Uber.</p>.<p>In March 2021, Britain's Supreme Court also classified Uber drivers as employees, rejecting the Silicon Valley company's contention that the drivers should be categorised as self-employed.</p>.<p>An Uber spokesman told <em>AFP</em> on Friday it rejected the French employment tribunal's decision.</p>.<p>"This decision goes against the widely shared view of labour courts and appeal courts that drivers using the (Uber) app are self-employed," he said.</p>.<p>"Drivers have no obligation to work, are not exclusively tied to Uber and are entirely free to organise their work as they choose," he said.</p>