The Tunisian Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Technologies issued a warning to the “Yassir Tunisia” application on Monday, January 16, 2023.
According to the two ministries, the company “Yassir Tunisia” promotes individuals to join the application to carry out irregular public transportation of people outside of the legal and regulatory frameworks in place. They believe that “Yassir Tunisia” is in significant violation of the law because this mode of transportation is subject to licence and also violates the concept of fair competition.
The ministries state that steps would be put in place “to deal with this issue, in order to protect the public service,” in collaboration with the appropriate authorities.
It will be recalled that individual cabs launched a strike on the same Monday “after the lack of responsiveness from the government and the authorities associated with the requests of experts in the field over e-transport applications”.
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The Tunisian Union of Individual Taxis considers these applications to be illegal, and communication has been filed to the Central Bank and the public prosecutor to alert them to the many violations, including money laundering.
The strike was called off in the early evening following a meeting with an adviser to the Ministry of Communication Technologies who agreed to regulate e-transport applications in collaboration with the ministries of Justice and Transportation.
The Tunisian Union of Individual Taxis has decided to submit a complaint against an application’s owner.
For its part, “Yassir Tunisia” issued a press release in response to recent attacks that occurred close to the company’s headquarters and were carried out by members of one of the professional associations of taxi drivers. The company announced that all of these acts, which pose a serious risk to the company’s employees, have been reported to be used in legal proceedings.
The business wished to emphasise that “the only parties authorised to request clarifications and explanations about the company’s activity or to potentially resolve any dispute that may arise between the startup and other professional or private structures are the official structures of the Tunisian State.”
“In light of the aforementioned, as well as the gravity of the repeated threats made against the rules and institutions of the Tunisian State, Yassir reiterates its demand that the government ensure the security of its personnel and their freedom to work.
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Additionally, it reiterates its desire to communicate with all relevant governmental parties while maintaining compliance with the law and customer interests, the business said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard