Mr Justice Michael Peart, who heard the case for more than 30 days, today awarded costs against the three, which are expected to run into the millions.
The judge granted their counsel a 28-day on the costs order in the event of an appeal.
Alphonsus Muldoon and Vincent Malone sued the Minister for Environment and Local Government, Dublin City Council, and the State while Thomas Kelly sued the Minister, Ennis Town Council and the State. Theirs were test cases for more than 1,100 similar claims by taxi drivers.
The three sought damages and declaratory orders claiming that because the Minister and/or the local authorities permitted a licensing regime to operate as it did over so many years, they suffered immediate and significant losses as a result of overnight deregulation and liberalisation of the market.
Mr Muldoon and Mr Kelly claimed the Minister and the State acted beyond his powers by delegating the role of deciding on the number of licences to the local authorities and in breach of their right to earn a livelihood and their constitutional rights.
Mr Muldoon also sought declarations including that the City Council acted contrary to competition law and that the defendants, or some of them, had been unjustly enriched as a result of the regulatory regime operated and/or approved by them.
The defendants denied the claims.
Last October, Mr Justice Peart ruled the claims made by all three men must be dismissed.
Dealing with the costs issue, he declined to certify for two senior counsel for the State and Dublin City Council after lawyers argued a great deal of work had had to be put into the matter which was important not just for the taxi sector but for the whole of the regulated industries.
The judge said the issue of whether there should be costs for two senior counsel was within the power of the the Taxing Master, who decides what level of costs there should be where there is a dispute about them. While it was a long case, that issue will be a matter for the Taxing Master and his order would remain silent in relation to it.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/three-taxi-drivers-who-failed-in-legal-bid-over-deregulation-of-taxi-industry-face-massive-legal-costs-34384332.html?
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Las Vegas-area cabs are overcharging customers to the tune of $47 million a year, according to an audit released Tuesday of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, which regulates the rides in Clark County.
Auditors for the governor's finance office blamed a $3 credit card processing fee that they say is much higher than in other cities and probably shouldn't exist. They also criticized a decision to increase a fuel surcharge even as gas prices are tanking, saying having the surcharge at all is unique among the 12 major Western cities that the taxi board tracks.
"The board's decision is a windfall for the industry," the audit says. "These are mostly tourist/visitor dollars that would otherwise likely be spent elsewhere in the local economy."
The criticism comes a few months after ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft started operating in Nevada with promises of cheaper and more convenient rides. The taxi industry, which makes big bucks taking tourists on a 5-mile trip from the airport to the Strip, fought hard against allowing the companies before losing its battle in the Legislature last spring.
Cynthia Kulak, 43, who was visiting Las Vegas from Raleigh, North Carolina, said a taxi ride from the airport to the Bellagio casino-hotel was $21 with tip on Wednesday.
"Once you're in there and you're driving, what else are you going to do but pay it?" she said, adding that she will probably use Uber next time.
Denver resident Dominick Lovely, 37, said he paid $9 for a cab ride of 5 minutes or less from the Sands convention center to the Bellagio, calling the cost a rip-off.
"Three dollars doesn't sound like a lot, but aggregated over an entire population of people in Las Vegas taking cabs, it's not a fair deal," he said, referring to the credit card fee.
Representatives of a union for many area taxi drivers said they have long fought to end the fee, arguing it enriches the cab company but hurts drivers. For example, some passengers mistakenly believe it is a tip for the driver and skip the gratuity.
"It is absolutely, utterly ridiculous to have a credit card fee of $3. That's absurd," said Sam Moffitt, a union organizer representing drivers of the large taxi company Yellow-Checker-Star. "The drivers do not get any portion of that money."
Gene Auffert, CEO of Yellow-Checker-Star, declined to comment.
The audit panned the fee, saying it far exceeds the cost of cab companies accepting cards. State agencies pay 8.5 cents to Wells Fargo per credit card transaction, auditors said, and taxicab regulatory agencies in other cities allow fees between 3.8 percent and 5 percent of the total fare.
The $3 fee accounts for about 17 percent of the total average cab fare in Clark County and should be immediately reduced to 90 cents at most or halted altogether, auditors said.
They also said a cab fuel surcharge that regulators approved last summer is based on a federal gas-price average that's higher than Las Vegas rates. The fee structure, which the taxi industry supports, is designed so customers pay a full 12 cents more per mile once gas hits $3.25 a gallon, instead of kicking in gradually depending on how high gas prices rise, the audit said.
Auditors were so critical of the Nevada Taxicab Authority that they recommended abolishing it and turning over its duties to another agency.
Ron Grogan, chief of the authority, said the taxi board would have to discuss the recommendations before making changes. But he acknowledged that his agency had probably outlasted its usefulness and struggled amid complex regulations.
http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-01-20/audit-vegas-area-cabs-overcharging-public-by-47m-a-year
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