The Hong Kong Legislative Council passes the ride-hailing regulation bill

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government stated on the 15th that it welcomes the Legislative Council's passage of the "2025 Road Traffic Ordinance" on the same day. This is an important milestone in introducing a regulatory system for ride-hailing services, providing citizens with safer, more reliable, and personalized point-to-point transportation services. The ordinance introduces a regulatory framework for ride-hailing services, stipulating that platforms, vehicles, and drivers providing ride-hailing services must obtain licenses or permits. Platforms holding ride-hailing service licenses must maintain appropriate and efficient services and conduct due diligence on their vehicles and drivers. The ordinance requires that ride-hailing vehicles must have suitable third-party liability insurance, meet relevant vehicle age and inspection requirements, and comply with the "vehicle-driver binding" regulation—meaning that vehicles must be registered in the name of an individual and driven by the registered owner to provide ride-hailing passenger services. Ride-hailing drivers must meet conditions such as being at least 21 years old and having no serious traffic conviction records in the past five years, and must pass relevant assessments. At the same time, the ordinance also strengthens penalties and arrangements for illegal fare-taking and passenger-carrying