Tourism Law in Europe

7 4. Transportation 4.1. Taxi In Denmark, it is illegal to transport passengers for profit unless certain requirements are met. 24 Thus, it is not permitted to pick up passengers on the street or getting hired through an app to drive passengers without meeting these requirements. Some of the requirements will be listed in the following to get an idea of the level of regulation in this area. ‘For profit’ is defined as getting paid more than what covers the expenses and taxi transportation is the transport of passengers in cars of 5-9 seats. 25 Recent legislation have removed the geographical restrictions which means that the taxies can now drive and pick up passengers wherever they want. Each taxi has to be connected to driving offices in charge of distributing rides. 26 The driving offices make sure that the official nationwide price limit on fares are not exceeded and in addition, they hold a duty to gather information on the fares. To run a taxi business, you have to have an authorisation. 27 To drive a taxi, you have to have a special taxi driver permit which will be valid for 5 years. 28 To obtain the permit, you have to pass a qualification course consisting among others of a test of driving skills. 29 To be admitted to the qualification course, you have to pass a test proving a minimum of Danish language skills. 30 Also, you have to be 21 year old having had a license for at least 3 years and you have to be able to pass a health test. 31 In addition, there is a requirement of you being able to behave yourself in a proper manner. 32 This is mainly evaluated from your criminal record. The car has to be equipped with certain technical features such as a fare meter and seat registration or similar registration, inside camera and electronic traffic book. 33 On the outside of the car, a number of requirements also has to be met in order to identify the taxi as such and to identify the specific taxi. 34 Because of these requirements, companies like Uber cannot 24 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 3 (Law on Taxies). 25 LFF 2017-10-04 nr 24 Forslag til Taxilov, kommentar til § 1 (Preparatory work for the proposal of Law on Taxies). 26 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 4, stk. 2 (Law on Taxies). 27 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 3 (Law on Taxies). 28 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 9 (Law on Taxies). 29 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 7 (Law on Taxies). 30 Bekendtgørelse 2019-11-26 nr. 1244 om taxikørsel, § 24, stk. 1, nr. 1 (Declaration on Taxi Driving). 31 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 7, stk. 2 (Law on Taxies). 32 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 5 (Law on Taxies). 33 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 25 (Law on Taxies). 34 Lov 2017-12-19 nr. 1538 Taxilov § 26 (Law on Taxies).