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Comment by jforman | Hacker News Reader

You seem to want to kill the messenger here. If Uber's practice was unlawful, it would've been stopped eventually.

And why was Uber's practice unlawful? The "free market" of contractors Uber relies on to drive down costs also allows drivers freedom of speech to ask for tips. Uber can either have an open driver market or they can limit their drivers' speech — they can't do both.

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Does it make the farmers' market unfree when it declares a rule that vendors may not purchase their wares (but must grow the produce/animals on a farm)? Does that make the farmers employees of the farmers' market? Without getting into the finer points of law about contractor independence & discretion, it's a bit silly to hold the position that Uber can't regulate the service in any way. In particular, standardizing the terms of the contract to be traded in a given market is a practice even the staunchest of free market proponents accept.

"Does it make the farmers' market unfree when it declares a rule that vendors may not purchase their wares (but must grow the produce/animals on a farm)?"

At my local farmer's market vendors are neither contractors nor employees. Vendors rent space and enter into a normal commercial contract, the rules for which are very different.

"it's a bit silly to hold the position that Uber can't regulate the service in any way"

I'm sorry I'm having trouble seeing your argument here through the huge straw man.

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