Authorities in Madrid have announced that they will revoke the operating licenses of e-scooter rental companies Lime, Dott and Tier – a move that will see rented e-scooters banished from the streets of the Spanish capital.
City mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida announced the decision on Thursday, and the local council published a statement saying the three companies had failed to meet the conditions set out in their permits, which were granted in May 2023.
The council said the companies blocked its efforts to inspect their operations by not providing required information or granting access to their interfaces. Nonetheless, it said, it had managed to ascertain that they had not met the terms of the permits.
“These failures include a lack of service across the whole city, a lack of insurance coverage and the absence of technology that prevents the vehicles from circulating or parking in prohibited areas,” it said.
Lime, Dott and Tier were the companies selected to offer e-scooter rental in Madrid, with permits granted for 2,000 scooters each. The council’s decision means “rental scooters will disappear from the city from October,” it said.
Once the process of revoking the permits has started, the companies will have 20 days to appeal the decision, it added.
A spokesman for Dott told CNN on Monday that the company had received an official notification from Madrid city hall on Thursday.
“We are now assessing the situation of shared e-scooters service and are waiting for a meeting with Madrid municipality before taking any decision,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“We expect that a constructive dialogue is possible with the municipality to understand the reasons for the announced decision so that we can address them properly and maintain a useful mobility service for Madrilenians and visitors,” the spokesman added.
A spokesperson for Lime told CNN the company was “disappointed by this surprise move,” and that it believed “the stated grounds for this decision were misplaced.”
“We will explore ways to support our riders in Madrid to ensure they have access to safe, affordable and sustainable transport options and look forward to continuing discussions with the Council to ensure service can continue,” the spokesperson added.
CNN has also contacted Tier for comment.
Madrid council will not grant any further e-scooter operating permits, Mayor Martínez-Almeida added in the statement, “as it has been shown that the market cannot meet the necessary requirements established by the council that guarantee the highest level of citizen safety possible.”
Private electric scooters remain legal in the city, according to the city hall website.
Madrid is not the first city to take action against e-scooter rentals, which have become increasingly divisive.
In August, officials in the Australian city of Melbourne decided to ban e-scooter rentals, citing safety concerns following hundreds of complaints and accident reports.
“This was an opportunity to end the havoc on Melbourne’s footpaths and make our city safe again,” Melbourne Mayor Nicholas Reece reportedly said at a press conference.
And in April 2023, residents of Paris voted in favor of banning rental electric scooters from the French capital, with the ban coming into force at the end of August, when the scooter operators’ contracts expired.
CNN’s Maggie Hiufu Wong, Pierre Bairin and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report.
