Ordinances for Transportation Network Providers – 5th amendment

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7^th Circuit court of Appeals

Case Name: Illinois Transportation Trade Association, et al v. City of Chicago, et al

Case No.: 16-2009; 16-2077; 16-2980

Officials: POSNER, WILLIAMS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Ordinances for Transportation Network Providers – 5^th amendment

Plaintiff’s claims are without merit in case against city for differences in regulation for UBER vs Transportation Network Providers

“There are enough differences between taxi service and TNP service to justify different regulatory schemes, and the existence of such justification dissolves the plaintiffs’ equal protection claim. Different products or services do not as a matter of constitutional law, and indeed of common sense, always require identical regulatory rules. The fallacy in the district judge’s equal protection analysis is her equating her personal belief that there are no significant differences between taxi and TNP service with the perception of many consumers that there are such differences—a perception based on commonplace concerns with convenience, rather than on discriminatory or otherwise invidious hostility to taxicabs or their drivers. If all consumers thought the services were identical and that there was therefore no ad‐ vantage to having a choice between them, TNPs could never have gotten established in Chicago.”

Affirmed in part

Reversed in part

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.