Lyon: Uber, an app-based taxi service, has been ordered to compensate drivers in Lyon, France, up to 20 million euros ($21.7 million), according to their attorney Stephane Teyssier.
According to the court, Uber drivers should be classified as employees rather than self-employed, citing a Court of Cassation ruling from January 2020.
"Uber was ordered to amend the contracts of 139 drivers at a cost of 17 to 20 million euros," said Teyssier.
"A penalty on that scale is exceptional in France," he added.
The US company, which has over 30,000 drivers using its platform in France, said it would appeal, AFP reported.
In order to get their working relationship reclassified as an employment contract, drivers in Lyon, the third-biggest city in France, had taken the world's largest ride-hailing taxi company before an employment tribunal.
This is only the most recent in a string of such setbacks for Uber.
Uber's claim that drivers should be regarded as self-employed was denied by Britain's Supreme Court in March 2021, which also classified the drivers as employees.
Uber rejected the judgement of the French employment tribunal, a representative for the company told AFP on Friday.
"This decision goes against the widely shared view of labour courts and appeal courts that drivers using the (Uber) app are self-employed," he said.
"Drivers have no obligation to work, are not exclusively tied to Uber and are entirely free to organise their work as they choose," he said.