A shareholder of taxi company riide has sued the City of Saskatoon and wants the court to strike down the bylaw allowing ride-sharing services like Uber to operate in Saskatoon.

A company that owns several municipal taxi licences and is a shareholder of taxi brokerage Riide has launched a class-action lawsuit aiming to strike down a 2018 bylaw that allowed ride-sharing companies to operate in Saskatoon.

The statement of claim was filed Wednesday in the Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench against the City of Saskatoon by S-I Management Limited, which owns about 16 licences in the city. The city has 20 days to respond.

Distroscale

None of the claims in the class action have been tested in court.

Among the claims in the class action, S-I Management alleges that taxi licence holders and brokers have had to pay fees or were subject to costs under the 2014 taxi bylaw that were not required of ride-sharing companies or ride-sharing drivers, including fees related to installing in-car cameras or installing meters. The claim states that ride-sharing drivers can charge surge prices, cancellation fees and higher fares for accessible vehicles.

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The claim also alleges that taxi licences have lost value and brokers and licence owners have suffered a loss in income.

It also states that the differentiation between taxi services and “transportation network companies,” which the lawsuit says Uber is classified as under the city’s 2018 bylaw, “violated” the rights of members of the class action to equal benefit of the law and that the differential treatment is arbitrary.

Another allegation in the claim is that the 2018 bylaw was effectively discriminatory and created two legal regimes for the same service.

“Class members differ from the population of Saskatoon. Disproportionately, class members or their affiliates, beneficiaries, or shareholders have a different race, first language, ethnic or national origin, and religion than the majority of Canadians in general and Saskatoon residents in particular,” the claim states.

As well, the plaintiff claims that the dispatching services are “essentially the same” in that passengers can pre-book services, they can hail vehicles electronically and can pay electronically.

The claim states that because Uber only accepts passengers who pay electronically, it led to a “churn of affluent Canadian passengers from taxis to Uber.”

The lawsuit refers specifically and repeatedly to ride-sharing giant Uber, though Uber is not the only ride-sharing company operating in Saskatoon. Rel8, RideX and Riide-hail also serve customers in the city. As well, Lyft has previously expressed plans to operate in Saskatoon.

Riide itself does not own taxis, but as a taxi brokerage dispatches the vehicles.

The plaintiff is seeking an unspecified financial judgement.

City of Saskatoon interim solicitor Cindy Yelland said in a statement that the city has been served and is in the process of reviewing the documents.

She said she was declining further comment in order to maintain the integrity of the city’s legal position and that the city will “respond accordingly in Court and allow that process to unfold.”