The STF (Supreme Federal Court) formed a majority to declare unconstitutional a São Paulo law that capital.
The case is being analyzed in the virtual plenary, a modality in which ministers do not debate each other and normally have a week to register their vote. The deadline for this case ends at 11:59 pm this Friday (14).
Since the beginning of 2025, the city of São Paulo and application platforms are engaged in a legal dispute over the permission of the service in the city. While companies resort to a federal law that, in their understanding, authorizes the provision of the country’s service, the city hall issued a municipal decree against motorcycle taxis, justifying the decision with the risks to users.
In the STF, the action was filed by the CNS (National Confederation of Services), which argues that the São Paulo law violates the constitution by invading the Union’s competences to legislate on national transport policy guidelines.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the case, welcomed the argument. “The State of São Paulo does not have the competence to deal with the matter or even to delegate or condition municipal action, as it did in the questioned law”, he stated in a vote.
According to him, the law also ends up unjustifiably hindering people’s right to work and goes against principles of the Constitution that protect the economy.
“The restrictions force citizens to submit to potentially more expensive, slower and less efficient alternatives, weakening the competitive environment, to the clear detriment of the consumer. This is because it is common knowledge that individual passenger transport via apps, especially by motorcycles, has a more affordable cost, meaning a robust alternative to public transport”, he says.
Moraes’ understanding was followed in full by ministers Dias Toffoli, Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia and André Mendonça.
Minister Flávio Dino also agreed with Moraes, but highlighted that app transport activity should not exclude a regime of basic rights for service providers, such as holidays, weekly rest and accident insurance, and this topic should be a topic for future debate.
Minister Cristiano Zanin agreed that the São Paulo law should be declared unconstitutional, but argued that municipalities can in some cases regulate and monitor transport via apps.
The law was already suspended for since September. Now, it must be definitively overturned.
