Court blocks new taxi tender in Istanbul

The tender that the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) planned to hold on February 18 for the first phase of 2,500 new taxis, which will operate via mobile application-based transport, has been cancelled by a court decision. Following a lawsuit filed by the Istanbul Chamber of Taxi Drivers, a higher court issued a stay of execution for the tender.

To resolve Istanbul's long-standing taxi problem, the IMM had successfully secured unanimous approval in August 2024 for a new taxi license proposal it had been submitting to the UKOME agenda since 2019. Under the proposal, which was also approved by the IMM Assembly in September, a tender was to be held for 150 taxi licenses in the first phase. The estimated value for each license was set at 4 million 250 thousand TL + VAT, and the usage period was announced as 29 years.

STAY OF EXECUTION FROM THE COURT

However, the Istanbul Chamber of Taxi Drivers filed a lawsuit for the cancellation of the UKOME and assembly decision and requested a stay of execution. The Istanbul 14th Administrative Court rejected this request on December 27, 2024. Following this, the chamber of tradesmen appealed the decision and applied to a higher court.

The Sixth Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Administrative Court issued a stay of execution with a unanimous decision on January 23, 2025. The decision emphasized that commercial taxi licenses can be leased for a maximum of 10 years, and that the IMM's determination of a 29-year allocation period was contrary to the law.

IMM APPEALS

The IMM has appealed the decision and announced that it is following the legal process. The court will make the final decision. Meanwhile, it remains a matter of curiosity how the outcome of this lawsuit, filed by the Istanbul Chamber of Taxi Drivers—chaired by Eyüp Aksu, who has opposed increasing the number of new taxis in Istanbul for years—will affect the taxi crisis in the city.