Lime fails to block SF launch of rivals electric scooters Skip, Skoot

Lime, the San Francisco-based company behind the scooters who threatened to call the cops, lost a demand Friday for a temporary blocking order that would have delayed the launch of two competitors in the Californian city next week.

TechCrunch announced Friday that Lime filed a lawsuit this week, as part of a last-minute attempt to stop scooters from both companies, Skip and Scoot. This decision comes in reaction to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) which previously denied Lime permission to operate its scooter business in San Francisco.

Lime says the SFMTA unfairly denied him a license after the company rolled out its scooters in March without first getting approval from the city, TechCrunch announced in August. Before the launch in San Francisco of Skip and Scoot, the only two companies selected by the city for its pilot program of a yearlong electric scooter, Lime said she had not "no choice but to seek emergency assistance in court".

Interestingly, the company said in a statement to Gizmodo that it was considering the hearing at which Lime failed to obtain the temporary blocking order against Skip and Skoot "a victory for the people of San Francisco and Lime ". The company added:

The Honorable Harold E. Kahn raised serious concerns about the licensing process of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and ordered the rapid discovery of ESMA's selection process. In a rare case, the judge ordered five SFMTA officials and key employees, including Transportation Director Ed Reiskin, to testify next week. In mid-November, Justice Kahn will hold a new public hearing on this issue. The SFMTA will be required to respond to the residents of San Francisco and explain exactly what happened in the skewed SFMTA selection process.

Lime stated that it did not pursue a lawsuit to stop the activities of competing companies, but rather to expose what it described as "biased and flawed process" on the part of the company. SFMTA.

The city, for its part, welcomed the court's decision to reject Lime's request for a temporary restraining order and refuted Lime's claims that his selection process was biased. John Cote, Director of Communications for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, told TechCrunch that his licensing program was "both fair and transparent."

"The lime just did not like the result," Cote said. "The reality is that Lime's demand is significantly lower than its competitors. That's why he did not get a license. The San Franciscans deserve safe, fair and responsible scooter services, and that is precisely why this pilot program was designed. "

According to TechCrunch, JUMP, Spin, Lime, CycleHop, ofo, Razor, USSCooter, Lyft and Ridecell also applied for an electric scooter license in San Francisco and were refused.