As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week, a group of Atlanta taxi operators has sued the state of Georgia, seeking reimbursement they say they're due because the state has allowed ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft to compete for their business.
The lawsuit says the taxi operators paid tens of thousands of dollars for exclusive rights to provide rides for hire in Atlanta. It says House Bill 225 – which regulated ride-sharing services last year – undermined those rights and the value of special certificates they bought to provide taxi service in the city.
Records requested by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show the value of those certificates has fallen since 2014.
For regulatory purposes, the city police department tracks the sale of taxi certificates each year. Police memos obtained by the newspaper show the market value of the taxi certificates in recent years. The values are based on previous-year sales:
2011: $36,958.50
*2013: $54,424.05
2014: $55,000
2015: $21,805.55
2016: $35,987.21
*Information for 2012 was not included in the information the newspaper received.
The market value took a hit in 2015, though that value is based on 2014 sales, before the legislation passed. The value actually rebounded somewhat this year.
The attorney for the taxi owners told the Georgia Supreme Court last week his clients paid as much as $80,000 for certificates, though he said the value has fallen to as little as $2,000.
At stake in the lawsuit is whether the state must compensate the taxi operators for the loss of value or – as the state says – the operators should have known regulations could change, and they’re out of luck.
You can learn more about the issue here.
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