‘Legal guerrilla’
Van den Brandt also spoke about the legal wrangling in the Brussels parliament on Tuesday morning. “It is disappointing because we consulted the operators extensively before issuing the tender,” she stated. “They all agreed that the number of scooters in Brussels should be limited and promised to play the game ethically.”
The Green minister also indicated “in this legal guerrilla, he will defend the reform of the scooter sector, which is essential for pedestrians and in particular for people with reduced mobility.”
Lime and Voi are – to be clear – only concerned with the choice of sharing step operators. The companies are not contesting the decision for other mobility modes. Voi, like Bolt and Dott, may offer 2,500 shared bicycles from Thursday, a tender that had a similar procedure as that for the shared scooters that the company chose not to accept.
‘Procedure was correct’
As a reminder, seven operators participated in the public tender. Unlike Lime and Voi, Poppy – which still offers car sharing in Brussels – does not intend to challenge the decision. “We were well informed of the rules in advance,” says marketing director Pierre de Schaetzen. “Everyone was in favor of a decision like this, because it was not feasible to operate with almost ten players in the market.”
According to them, it is a shame that Poppy did not make it, but the procedure was correct. “We lost and immediately took the scooters off the market,” says De Schaetzen. The vehicles have been moved to Antwerp. Nevertheless, if the opportunity arises, Poppy will again attempt to conquer the Brussels market with shared scooters. “If the public tender is annulled, we will certainly participate in the next round.”
Brussels shared scooter provider previously went to the Council of State
In the meantime, another procedure is also underway regarding the tender for the shared scooters in Brussels. In the spring of 2023, the Brussels entrepreneurs of the scooter sharing company Gliize went to the Council of State because they did not agree that their permit could be taken away, an answer to this is expected soon.
“We consciously chose not to participate in the tender procedure,” says co-founder Sami Luka. “Anyone who did so automatically lost their permit.”
The permit forms the core of the argument of the Brussels entrepreneurs before the Council of State. “We have made significant investments,” says Luka, who manages a thousand Gliize scooters. “We could only do that because we received a three-year permit from the Brussels Region. And now the same government declares that this permit is not valid?”
2024-01-30 16:21:20
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