After a series of legal setbacks in Europe and North America, the ride-hailing service Uber got some welcome news on Tuesday. A court in Frankfurt overturned a nationwide ban against the company’s car-sharing service in Germany, lifting, for now, one of the most severe legal restrictions that Uber had faced anywhere in the world since it was founded in 2009. The temporary injunction on the service, which allows drivers to connect with potential passengers through a smartphone application, had been imposed by the court at the end of last month before a hearing could be held. After the hearing on Tuesday, judges announced that Uber, a start-up company based in San Francisco, could now continue to operate in Germany. The judges were sympathetic to the arguments of Taxi Deutschland, a trade body that had brought the initial case against Uber, claiming that the service competed unfairly with local taxis.
