All the things I'm talking about can be found by scrolling down this page and typing "Uber" in the search bar, filtering for stories from past few years. We've been discussing all the shenanigans Uber has been pulling over the years here, on HN. There was a lot of things, including:

- sabotaging competition, at some point even hiring people to do it and providing them with burner iPhones and credit cards

- threatening journalists

- privacy issues

- tax evasion and the whole contractor vs. employee thing

- (purposefully) basing their business on drivers without proper insurance

- abusive rating system (though here I'm not sure if this isn't simply a good idea with very hard to solve side effects)

There was also a long article posted here few months ago that detailed the way Uber squeezes the money out of the drivers (already locked-in by car loans they were encouraged to take) once they establish their market domination.

And note, I am not denying that the current system is corrupt and barely functioning. I'm happy that it's getting upturned. But we've been doing it in Europe for some years now, and it didn't require anyone to behave like this.

In Amsterdam - third most expensive place in the world to take a cab - a government enforced monopoly was broken down at the end of the 90s. The result was that prices actually went up and service went down. Also, special staff has been appointed to allocate taxis at taxi stands, otherwise taxi drivers end up fighting over clients. So, this situation is indeed quite suitable for Uber to take over, but it is not because of a government enforced monopoly. I guess most people in Amsterdam are nostalgic about government regulated taxi business.