The Centre for Law and Emerging Technologies (“CLETs”) at the Faculty of Law at the British University in Egypt held a workshop on “the Legal Challenges of a Sharing Economy” on Wednesday, 2 May 2018. The workshop aim was to discuss the legal and social dilemmas presented by the presence and recent wide spread use of ride sharing applications in the Egyptian Society such as Uber and Careem.
The workshop highlighted the legal and legislative debate concerning the regulation of those ride sharing companies in Egypt. It addressed the conflicting judgements issued by the Egyptian judiciary regarding the legality of ride sharing applications as well as the proposed draft law on the regulation of land transport services using information technology which was discussed by the Egyptian Parliament at that time. Furthermore, the workshop examined the implications of the existing or future legal framework governing ride sharing on investment in Egypt taking into consideration the role of companies that use technology in ride sharing in curbing the problem of unemployment. Moreover, some speakers at the workshop shed light on the duty of these companies to protect its users’ information and privacy under Egyptian law.
The workshop included keynote speakers from a wide variety of professions such as academia, parliament, judiciary, law firms and public entities. The participants in the workshop agreed to issue recommendation that will be passed on to lawmakers to help them in tackling the problem of regulation of companies that use technology in ride sharing applications.
The workshop was supported by the Society for Computers and Law (SCL)
Thanks to Dr Mohamed N. Elguindy Program Director, Cybercrime Faculty of Law, The British University in Egypt for providing this report
