Uber suspends lowest-cost service in France after managers charged, Uber drivers attacked

Uber has suspended its low-cost ride-hailing service in France in hopes of defusing an escalating legal dispute and sometimes-violent tensions with traditional French taxi drivers.

An Uber spokesman said Friday the low-cost service, in France called UberPop, is being suspended. UberPop links users to drivers without professional taxi or chauffeur licenses. French authorities had ordered it shut down, but Uber refused, pending a legal decision at a top French court.

Uber France chief Thibaud Simphaud in an interview in Le Monde that Uber changed its mind "in a spirit of bringing peace" with authorities.

Simphaud and another European manager for San Francisco-based Uber were detained this week and ordered to stand trial to face charges including "deceptive commercial practices" and complicity in illegal activities.