For a stretch, Auro and Cabify needed each other. Cabify signed an exclusivity arrangement that made Auro the backbone of its Spanish service. Auro supplied the drivers and vehicles that rolled out under the Cabify brand across several cities.
The arrangement gave Cabify quick capacity and gave Auro a steady customer. It also tied the fate of Alejandro Betancourt López’s permit portfolio to a single partner, and that knot eventually had to be cut.
When the partnership frayed
Disagreements piled up. Tensions over terms, the direction of the market and the value of Auro’s assets pushed the relationship toward a legal fight, and the question of whether Auro could break the exclusivity deal climbed all the way to Spain’s Constitutional Court.
The stakes reached past one contract. A ruling either way would shape how freely Auro could sell or lease the licenses it had spent years gathering.
December 2024
The decision landed in Auro’s favor. The court ruled in December 2024 that Auro was legally free to end the arrangement. The last obstacle to dealing with other platforms was gone.
The judgment did more than settle a dispute. It confirmed the permit portfolio as a transferable commercial asset whose owner could direct it at will, and it cleared the runway for the Uber deal that closed weeks later.