The coalition of taxi companies claim the services, which are used to call cars through a smartphone application, violate federal and state laws and regulations, as well as deceive customers about fares, car safety, and insurance coverage of their drivers.
Last month, Uber and Lyft starting offering rides and signing up drivers in Connecticut. Both offered promotions to encourage riders to take their service.
At its core, the case states that the services, which in ways both look and feel like taxi or livery services, should operate under the same tight regulations that the rest of the taxi and limousine industry does.
"Taxi and livery companies must abide by these laws and regulations promulgated over decades, designed to protect consumers, ensure public safety, safeguard competition, and ensure non-discriminatory services," the taxi companies said in the complaint, adding they have "invested significant capital and resources to develop systems and infrastructure that ensures regulatory compliance and provides adequate consumer protections."
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, mimics similar ones raised in cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Columbus, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
It pits the taxi and limo industry, which knows each chapter and verse of state regulations, against new deep-pocket tech upstarts that are bankrolled by both Silicon Valley and Wall Street -- from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google Ventures, to Goldman Sachs. Funding for Uber and Lyft each reach above $300 million, according to CrunchBase, an online startup database.
In a statement, Uber spokeswoman Natalia Montalvo called the lawsuit "baseless" and "just another example of taxi company owners trying to protect themselves from perceived competition, consumer choice and actually improving their customer service."
"Uber will vigorously defend the rights of drivers and riders to connect to safe, affordable and reliable transportation alternatives," Montalvo said."
Lyft Spokeswoman Katie Dally said the "lawsuit is without merit." Lyft, she said, fills "an economic and transportation need for both drivers and passengers in Fairfield County, and we will continue to provide safe, reliable rides that benefit the local community and further public safety."
Greenwich Taxi Inc., the lead plaintiff in the case, was unavailable for comment.
Legislation passed through the General Assembly called for the state Department of Transportation to conduct a study with the heads of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Consumer Protection on the regulation of services like Uber and Lyft. A spokesman for the transportation department said the study will begin in the next few months and that it is due by February 2015.
The taxi and limousine market in the United States generates about $11 billion in sales each year and employs a quarter of a million people, according to market research firm IBISWorld.
Last week, news broke that Uber would be hiring a top official from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, Ashwini Chhabra, as its first head of policy development and community engagement.
"I won't say that at New York T.L.C., we always got it right," he told The New York Times. "Regulators often move slower than entrepreneurs."
© 2014 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)
