CAIRO, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Uber and Careem taxi services operating in Egypt said Tuesday that they will appeal the court order banning their services to a higher court in the country.
Earlier on Tuesday, an administrative court in Egypt decided to ban the Uber and Careem taxi services from operating in the country based on a lawsuit filed by a group of traditional taxi drivers, accusing the two companies of breaking traffic laws by using private vehicles for commercial purposes.
"We respect the Egyptian judiciary... but we will appeal the verdict before the concerned court and our services are still available in Egypt," Uber Egypt's General Manager Abdel-Latif Waked said in a statement Tuesday.
"Uber is considered as one of the largest participants in the national economy and it has contributed to the creation of more than 150,000 job opportunities in Egypt during the year 2017 alone," he added.
Similarly, Careem released a statement Tuesday saying that it has not been officially informed to stop its services in Egypt and that the company continues its business normally.
The administrative court order came in response to a case filed in February 2017 by a group of Egyptian traditional taxi drivers who accused the two services of violating the Egyptian traffic law by using privately-owned cars as taxis without license.
The two online-based taxi service companies have been providing services in Egypt for a few years during which traditional taxi drivers have repeatedly protested the negative impact of the two companies on their work.
Uber and Careem have recently introduced taxi motorbikes and three-wheeled motorized rickshaws, known as "tuk-tuks," as new services in some areas in the most populous Arab country.
The court order banning their operation can still be appealed before the Higher Administrative Court.
"The ruling must take effect and cannot be stopped except by an order from the Higher Administrative Court," Tarek Nagida, a lawyer told Xinhua.