The biggest city-center protest was in London, where black-cab drivers were joined by private car services and trainees to protest what they saw as the government’s failure to hold Uber to the same standards as other car services and taxis. While similar demonstrations this year have led to smashed windshields and traffic chaos in Paris, a united front in Europe highlights the challenges for Uber’s expansion. Neelie Kroes, the European Union commissioner in charge of digital and telecoms policy, said responding to companies like Uber with strikes was pointless. Drivers of hundreds of London's black taxis snarled traffic in the streets around Trafalgar Square, hooting their horns as they passed Downing Street, the home of Prime Minister David Cameron, and the Houses of Parliament. The regulator says its provisional view is that smart phone applications do not constitute a taximeter but has asked the High Court for a view. Photorgapher: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images Close Taxis drivers block highway outside Paris, near Roissy, on June 11, 2014, as they take... Read More Close Open Taxis drivers block highway outside Paris, near Roissy, on June 11, 2014, as they take part in a demonstration to protest against mobile car-hailing services such as Uber, which have shaken up the industry. Uber has thus far offered luxury cars and cheaper rides in London, while excluding licensed black cabs. “It is a bit scary how protectionist Europe can be.” 
 
 Uber raised $1.2 billion in new financing led by Fidelity Investments last week, valuing the company at about $17 billion, before added investments. Lower Prices 
 
 Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick -- who started Uber in 2009 after he and partner Garrett Camp couldn’t find a cab in Paris -- has pushed the company into 37 countries. In London the company offered new customers 20 pounds ($33.58) off their first journey. Ordinances keep it out of cities such as Las Vegas and Miami while in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Uber and similar companies have faced lawsuits from taxi companies hoping to keep the new competition out. "Across a number of different countries the taxi industry is very similar - an industry which is highly regulated and arranged in a way that is not pro-consumer but just promotes protectionism."
– Today was a lousy one to be a tourist in Europe. Taxi cab drivers in Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin, Milan, and elsewhere clogged the streets in front of major attractions to protest what they see as unfair competition from the US ride-sharing service Uber, reports Bloomberg. Uber users can summon a taxi with their smartphones, and cabbies think drivers who participate should be subject to the same regulations they are—including pricey licenses. "This about an all-out assault on our profession, our livelihoods," a driver of one of London's "black taxis" tells Reuters. "These big companies are coming in, not playing by the rules." Uber has run into similar friction in various US cities, though nothing on the scale of today's coordinated protest in Europe. Executives for Uber, which last week announced $1.2 billion in new funding and a valuation of $18.2 billion, didn't seem fazed. "If anything, it's going to make Uber even more visible, and make a lot of people realize that they now have choices that they didn't have before," one tells the Wall Street Journal. (Of course, not all publicity is good publicity.)