Malaga private hire vehicles threaten legal action if not granted same access to the Feria as taxis

The organisation has described the council's measure as a clear case of discrimination compared with other forms of public transport, particularly taxis and buses, and warns of the significant inconvenience it causes to passengers.

The organisation said that it had formally requested the city council to allow VTCs to access Avenida de María Zambrano in order to drop off and pick up passengers for pre-booked services.

The city council has not yet addressed this request.

The traffic diversion the city council has imposed forces VTCs to take a much longer route to reach the fairgrounds.

This requires them to zigzag through the inner streets of the industrial area, which are usually one-way roads with vehicles parked on both sides. The employers' organisation says that this significant detour substantially increases journey times, fuel or electricity demand and inconvenience for customers who have booked the service in advance.

The VTC association believes the restriction lacks objective and proportionate justification, particularly as the courts have already ruled that ride-hailing vehicles cannot be prevented from accessing venues where they are due to provide pre-booked services.

The private hire drivers cite the ruling of the High Court of Justice of Andalucía of 21 January 2026, which annulled the 2022 Seville fair transport plan on substantially identical grounds.

The organisation's chairman, Pablo García-Trespalacios, has called on the city council to review the measure immediately.

"We are not asking for any privileges or preferential treatment. We are calling for exactly the opposite: that ride-hailing services can access the fairgrounds on the same terms as other forms of public transport when they are dropping off or picking up a passenger."

García-Trespalacios has described the difference in criteria as incomprehensible.

"If the aim is to ensure the safety, transport and smooth running of the fair, the measures must be applied using objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory criteria. We do not understand what reason of general interest could justify a ride-hailing service user having to take a detour that is not required of users of other forms of public transport," he said.

García-Trespalacios added that ride-hailing services transport passengers who have booked in advance and that there is no reason to believe that such a vehicle poses a more complicated traffic issue.

Furthermore, he warns that differentiating between routes constitutes an unjustified restriction on competition that favours one mode of transport over another.

The association is calling for dialogue before taking legal action. However, if the city coincil chooses not to take what VTC drivers call "a simple solution", allowing them to access the fairgrounds as other modes of transport, the association will take the matter to court.

"The courts have already ruled on a virtually identical situation at the Seville fair. Case law establishes that ride-hailing services cannot be prevented from entering the perimeter of a venue to pick up or drop off passengers who have previously booked the service. We therefore call on Malaga city council to take this legal principle into account and act accordingly," García-Trespalacios states.

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