RIO DE JANEIRO – Uber, the ride-hailing service, lost a round in its fight for legality in Brazil when the press office of the city’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, confirmed on Tuesday that he has decided to sign into law a bill intended to ban Uber and services like it.
Starting Wednesday, any drivers who transport paying passengers in vehicles not registered with the city for that purpose will be subject to fines of as much as 2,000 reais ($490).
Although the law applies to all the informal transport services common in Brazilian cities, it is clearly aimed at San Francisco-based Uber, which has been operating in Rio and three other Brazilian cities for just over a year.
But it may not stop Uber.
A Rio state court in August suspended a decree issued by the mayor to fine Uber drivers and confiscate their vehicles. The state bar association has also expressed the opinion that any city ban of paid ride-sharing services would be unconstitutional.
Even if the law survives, Uber has sometimes continued operating in some countries despite government opposition.
The sum of $490 is more than a full-time Uber driver is likely to earn in a week here, but if drivers are caught only rarely, it may simply become an operating expense.
Still, Uber has stirred up intense political animosity here and in other Brazilian cities, where taxi drivers are politically powerful.
The vote in the City Council to pass the law that Mayor Paes signed on Tuesday was 42 to 1. The mayor’s love for taxis is such that he has let it be known that he likes on occasion to leave City Hall and drive one.
The City Council is also considering a second bill that explicitly targets ride-hailing services by prohibiting the use of apps to connect paying passengers with private drivers.
“Uber, as I and the taxi drivers understand it, is a pirate company,” said Councilwoman Vera Lins, the author of the second bill, told the local press when she proposed it last week.
Ms. Lins’s bill is similar to one that the City Council of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, passed on Sept. 9 by 43 to 3. The mayor there is currently deciding whether to sign or veto that bill.
Uber’s press office said the company would only comment on the Rio mayor’s decision after the new law is officially published Wednesday.