The National Taxi Association (Antaxi) has announced a series of protests across Spain starting in June, aimed at challenging the surge in licenses for Vehicle-Transport Companies (VTC), particularly targeting the company Cabify.

The protests led by the Madrid Professional Taxi Federation are set for May 28 in the Spanish capital, following the Community of Madrid's decision to grant 8,500 new licenses to Cabify in accordance with a court ruling.

Taxi drivers argue that these licenses have been issued amidst alleged regulatory irregularities.

The planned demonstrations will take place at key transport hubs including train stations, ports, airports, and major city thoroughfares.

Antaxi has articulated that the mobilizations are intended to illustrate the potential gridlock that could ensue at critical urban transport points if more than 35,000 pending VTC licenses are approved for a single platform, referring specifically to Cabify.

In addition to concerns about irregularities in the license application processes, Antaxi's grievances are directed towards government administrations, which they accuse of ignoring an impending transport crisis and failing to present alternatives to the mass issuance of VTC licenses nationwide.

The authority to regulate these licenses lies with regional governments.

Currently, Spain has 20,950 VTC licenses compared to 62,798 taxi licenses, according to estimates from the Ministry of Transport.

In Madrid specifically, there are 8,873 VTC licenses versus 15,931 taxi licenses, suggesting that the recent issuance of 8,500 VTC licenses would exceed the total number of taxi licenses in the city.

Julio Sanz, president of Antaxi, has criticized VTC platforms for taking advantage of insufficient regulatory scrutiny to obtain thousands of licenses fraudulently, allowing them to market these licenses and generate substantial profits.

He has cautioned potential investors in VTC operations, indicating that they may be risking their investments without adequate guarantees.