The digital transport platform Buser cannot carry out interstate trips in Minas Gerais with a format similar to that of traditional bus companies. The decision is from the 4th Panel of the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region, which responded to a request from the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT), which considers the company’s activity as intermediation of clandestine transport.
The company announced that it will appeal the sentence.
The judgment reformed the sentence that recognized Buser’s right to intermediate interstate passenger transport without imposing fines for non-compliance with legal and regulatory standards.
The rapporteur of the case, federal judge Lincoln Faria, was defeated in his vote to maintain the sentence granting the order, even though he was accompanied by judge Monica Sifuentes.
According to the TRF, the winning vote, delivered by federal judge Simone Lemos, was followed by judges Prado de Vasconcelos and Alvaro Ricardo de Souza Cruz.
The judge highlighted, in her vote, that “in the sphere of public service, even if delegated, there is no freedom to do what is not regulated”.
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For her, the business model of Buser and its partners constitutes unfair competition with regular concessionary companies, “which comply with regulatory requirements and charges designed to guarantee the universal and continuous provision of the service”.
The winning vote addressed the collective vehicle charter regime, regulated as a specific modality, generally carried out in a closed circuit, without selling individual tickets or attracting passengers along the itinerary.
The consideration is that open circuit chartering, as practiced by Buser and its partners, is characterized as the illegitimate use of sections covered by regular operators.
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For the TRF, “the legitimization of Buser’s business model violates the economic order and the principle of equality, since regular concessionary companies assume a series of obligations, not observed by the petitioner’s partners”.
Federal judge Simone Lemos also reflected on the impact of new technologies on the sector, stating that “the nature of the service must be identified without semantic gymnastics”. According to her, even with intermediation by digital platforms, clandestine transport remains clandestine and must be treated as such.
