Ill. Transportation Trade Ass’n v. City of Chicago

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendants’ (Transportation Network Providers (TNPs) such as Uber) motion to dismiss plaintiffs-taxi companies' equal protection action challenging ordinance that regulated TNPs less harshly than plaintiffs. City could properly regulate plaintiffs more harshly than TNPs, where: (1) unlike plaintiffs, TNPs require customers to sign up before being able to seek their services; (2) said sign-up requirement created contractual relationship with customer with respect to rates and services; (3) unlike plaintiffs, TNPs assumed primary responsibility for screening potential drivers; and (4) regulations placed on plaintiffs attempted to protect customers by screening plaintiffs' taxi drivers and imposing uniform system of rates. Moreover, Dist. Ct. improperly found that plaintiffs had potential equal protection action based on its personal belief that there were no significant differences between taxi and TNP services.