a top european court on thursday ruled against restrictions imposed by barcelona city hall on ridehailing companies like uber and cabify spains second largest city has in recent years granted just one licence for vehicles with drivers vtcs for every 30 licences awarded traditional taxis the restriction was imposed in response to protests from barcelonas taxi drivers who said uber and its spanish rival cabify were operating with an unfair advantage ridehailing firms have challenged the restrictions in the courts the luxembourgbased court of justice of the eu ecj ruled thursday that the rules violated ridehailing firms freedom of establishment in the city they effectively limit market access to all newcomers and the number of vtc service providers established in barcelona the court added in its ruling the court acknowledged that requiring licences can be considered necessary to achieve the goals of good management of transport traffic and public space but it said licences should be issued on objective nondiscriminatory and previously known criteria the objective of ensuring the economic viability of taxi services cannot constitute one of those reasons the court said the rise of ridehailing platforms like uber has sparked conflict in many cities around the world in recent years several protests were held in barcelona in 2018 and 2019 which were marred by clashes between taxi drivers and drivers of ridehailing companies