The ride-hailing app involved in London’s 2017 licensing ban was Uber.
On September 22, 2017, Transport for London announced that it would not renew Uber London Limited’s private-hire operator licence. TfL said the company was not “fit and proper” to operate, citing concerns that included reporting serious criminal offences, driver medical certificates, background checks and Uber’s use of Greyball technology.
The wording “banned” is a popular shorthand, but the decision was technically a refusal to renew the licence rather than a permanent prohibition on the Uber app. Uber appealed, and a London court later granted it a limited licence with additional conditions in 2018. The controversy therefore did not permanently remove Uber from London.
Ola, Didi and Lyft were not the company at the centre of this particular 2017 London licensing dispute. The safety and regulatory concerns were about Uber London’s operating practices and compliance, not about the identity of the app itself.