Uber suspends low-cost service in France amid legal pressure
By Associated Press
Jul 3, 2015 5:10 AM CDT
FILE - This Thursday, June 25, 2015 file photo shows a striking taxi driver holding a placard which read, "Stop Uber, Stop listening," referring to the new US spying report in France, during a taxi drivers demonstration in Paris, France. French authorities took two Uber managers into custody for questioning...   (Associated Press)

PARIS (AP) — Uber has suspended its low-cost ride-hailing service in France in hopes of defusing an escalating legal dispute and sometimes-violent tensions with traditional French taxi drivers.

An Uber spokesman said Friday the low-cost service, in France called UberPop, is being suspended. UberPop links users to drivers without professional taxi or chauffeur licenses. French authorities had ordered it shut down, but Uber refused, pending a legal decision at a top French court.

Uber France chief Thibaud Simphaud in an interview in Le Monde that Uber changed its mind "in a spirit of bringing peace" with authorities.

Simphaud and another European manager for San Francisco-based Uber were detained this week and ordered to stand trial to face charges including "deceptive commercial practices" and complicity in illegal activities.