The reasons why Uber and Cabify announced their departure from Barcelona

"Given the VTC restrictions approved by the Government of Catalonia, we are obliged to suspend the UberX service in Barcelona", the US company Uber said in a tweet.

UberX is a service similar to that offered by taxis and the most popular of the company. In Spain, it also offers luxury chauffeur-driven car rental and home delivery services.

Shortly after, his main competitor, the Spanish Cabify, joined the rout: "The sole purpose of this Regulation is, and therefore also as a last resort, the direct expulsion of the Cabify application"said in a statement, adding that this Friday would communicate its progress to its users.

The announcement comes on the eve of the entry into force of a new regulation in Catalonia which it forces to contract VTC services with 15 minutes in advance – prorogable at one hour in Barcelona – and it prevents applications like Uber and Cabify from using the geolocation of its vehicles.

The new regulation was approved after a stiff strike by taxi drivers and, for the VTC sector, it badumes "expulsion" from the competition to the taxi in Spain's second most populous city.

In Madrid, taxi drivers have been on strike for eleven days to obtain similar regulations from their regional government, which for the moment is reluctant.

"The obligation to wait 15 minutes to travel by VTC exists nowhere in Europe and is totally incompatible with the immediacy of services on demand, such as UberX", denounces Uber in a statement.

"98.5% of trips managed through the Cabify app are less than 15 minutes of waiting"said the Spanish company.

Unauto VTC employer denounced the fact that the new law could result in the destruction of 3,000 to 4,000 jobs in the region and the disappearance of more than 60 companies.

Indeed, the Vector Round company, which lends its fleet of vehicles to Cabify, has announced to its staff the upcoming implementation of an employment regulatory file to lay off 1,000 employees.