The Tribune

Taxi drivers striking to demand tighter regulations for companies using ride-hailing apps blocked traffic for another day in Spain’s two major cities yesterday, while threatening to take their protest to the French border.

Hundreds of taxi drivers continued to block major roads in Madrid and Barcelona, with many wearing the yellow traffic safety vest that has become the symbol of protests in neighbouring France.

Alberto Alvarez, spokesman for the Barcelona taxi driver association Elite Taxi, told Spanish television that “we are talking to our colleagues in France to go to the frontier also”.

The strike started in Barcelona on Friday, when some taxi drivers trashed cars operated by the app services Uber and Cabify.

Taxi drivers in Madrid joined the protest on Monday. They are promising to continue to disrupt traffic flows today, when the Spanish capital hosts a major tourism trade show.

The taxi drivers in Barcelona want regional governments to force users of services of ride-hailing apps to contract rides 12 hours beforehand.

Taxi drivers in both cities already went on strike against the internet-driven ride-hailing platforms in July.

They complain that ride-hailing app drivers compete unfairly since they don’t have the same regulations and costs.

Elliott pushes for changes at eBay

An activist shareholder said yesterday that eBay would be better off without StubHub or its classified ads businesses.

Elliott Management, which owns more than four percent of its stock, said in a letter to eBay that if it focused on its online marketplace, the company could double its share price to more than $63 by the end of next year.

Shares of eBay Inc jumped eight percent in midday trading.

In a statement from its headquarters in San Jose, California, eBay said it will “carefully review and evaluate Elliott’s proposals”.

Elliott believes eBay’s classifieds business has a potential value of $8bn to $12bn, and put StubHub’s value between $3.5bn and $4.5bn.