Not really. Taxi medallions are required to let you pick up someone else that hails you on the street. It is not required for a drive scheduled elsewhere like over the phone or the Internet. They weren't breaking laws, at least in the US.
Most of the regulations applied to Uber were new regulations introduced after their ride to popularity, often crafted with the express purpose of curbing Lyft and Uber.
You're definitely misremembering history, then. Hailing is certainly a "category definer", but what Uber was doing in the beginning was definitely not kosher in many US jurisdictions.
Ordering on-demand in an app was seen by regulators as much more taxi-like than scheduling a black car for a particular date, time, and place.
Uber was originally called "Ubercab", and changed their name specifically to attempt to distance themselves from traditional taxi service.
> Ordering on-demand in an app was seen by regulators as much more taxi-like than scheduling a black car for a particular date, time, and place.
Regulators tried to reinterpret existing laws to placate an interest group. Most cities has explicit laws around this: responding to someone hailing on the street required a medallion. Scheduling a ride via the internet did not.
This is why they had to pass new laws to try and stamp out taxi's competition.
But is it really "scheduling" a ride if the target time is "right now"?
It sounds to me like what they cared about was the distinction between "now" and "plan for later", and the way this was actually implemented in the laws turned out to be based on inaccurate assumptions.
> But is it really "scheduling" a ride if the target time is "right now"?
The ride is usually at least a few minutes from the present time. And again, the medallions are only required to respond to people hailing on the street. This is why cities trying to obstruct Uber had to pass new laws, not just enforce existing ones.
> Not really. Taxi medallions are required to let you pick up someone else that hails you on the street. It is not required for a drive scheduled elsewhere like over the phone or the Internet. They weren't breaking laws, at least in the US.
Maybe not in the US, but Uber was (at one point) banned in multiple locations in (at least) Europe because they flagrantly ignoring existing laws.
In some locations, like Netherlands, Uber was fined and told it was illegal, but continued service anyway up until their offices were raided, then they finally shut down.
Most of the regulations applied to Uber were new regulations introduced after their ride to popularity, often crafted with the express purpose of curbing Lyft and Uber.