Experts see open path for motorcycle taxis, but there is no consensus; Nunes administration rejects it.
Lawyers say the city hall should have anticipated the end of the deadline given by the São Paulo Court of Justice to regulate the activity.
The head of the Executive branch says there is no chance of the service being offered; the association’s defense counters: ‘no illegality’.
André Fleury Moraes
Carlos Petrocilo
São Paulo – The motorcycle taxi service in São Paulo has no obstacle preventing it from being offered starting on the 11th, when the deadline given by the Justice system to the Ricardo Nunes (MDB) administration to regulate the activity ends, say experts interviewed by Folha, although this is not a unanimous argument.
The issue is the target of a tug-of-war between the MDB government and transportation apps, which since 2023 have been seeking to reverse a decree issued that year by the São Paulo City Hall that suspended the motorcycle taxi service.
The regulation was challenged in the Judiciary and ultimately overturned by the TJ-SP (Court of Justice of São Paulo) in September of this year.
The TJ agreed with the arguments of the CNS (National Confederation of Services), the plaintiff in the case, according to which the decree from the Nunes administration violates the principles of free initiative and free competition.
The decision declaring the text of the MDB member unconstitutional gave the municipal administration 90 days to regulate the sector—a deadline that ends next Thursday (11).
After that, say experts consulted by the report, services may be offered.
“The city hall would have 90 days to regulate the individual transport service, considering its constitutional competence, which does not include the suspension of the activity,” says Ana Scalioni, a specialist in administrative law.
For her, “there is a clear interest from the population in the availability of alternative and accessible means of transport, especially in times of crisis in public transport.”
One of the bets of the Nunes administration involves a project that the City Council plans to approve, which creates rules for the motorcycle taxi service and conditions the exercise of the activity on prior accreditation by the City Hall—a process that can take up to 60 days.
It is a clause that is open to questioning, says Scalioni, “if it generates any impossibility in the exercise of the activity.”
“Ideally, according to the Constitution and the Law of Economic Freedom, municipalities should have as a principle the liberalization of non-illegal economic activities in general and create obstacles only for those of high risk. This is not the case, given the judicial decisions on the subject,” says João Gabriel Lemos Ferreira, Master in Constitutional Law from ITE (Toledo Institute of Education).
Lawyer Vera Chemim, Master in Public Administration from FGV (Getulio Vargas Foundation), states that “there is nothing to be done.”
“If the Court of Justice gave a deadline that expires on the 11th, the municipality should have expedited the approval of this law. So I think that, regardless of the existence of a municipal law, this service can be resumed based on the Supreme Court’s decision,” says Vera.
She refers to a court ruling that invalidated a rule approved by the Alesp (Legislative Assembly of São Paulo) that conditioned the operation of motorcycle taxis in the state on the approval of municipal laws permitting it.
For the Supreme Court, the state does not have the competence to legislate on the matter and, moreover, the condition imposed in the legal text created barriers to the exercise of the professional activity.
Chemim says that accreditation is “essential and indispensable from a practical point of view, even for safety reasons,” but that it will be up to the administration to rush to carry it out. Until then, she says, the federal rule that allows the activity will prevail.
There are disagreements, however, and “there is a need for time to regulate an extremely risky activity with damaging consequences,” says lawyer Carlos Figueiredo Mourão, who holds a master’s degree in constitutional law from PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo).
“It is important to point out the health issue arising from motorcycle accidents in the city of São Paulo, which affects the municipality and impacts society, and the freedom to open new business activities should be analyzed,” he adds.
Mayor Ricardo Nunes adopts a similar line, rejecting any possibility of resuming motorcycle taxi services on the 11th “whether by judicial decision or by the regulation that will exist.” For the mayor, app companies are adopting an irresponsible stance by announcing the service as early as next Thursday.
“Let’s have the minimum of care and caution in preserving people’s lives.”
Nunes also cites a study by Ipea (Institute of Applied Economic Research) according to which “the recent trend of increased mortality among motorcycle users is particularly worrying and demands urgent attention from the authorities and society.”
This argument doesn’t make sense, according to USP professor Floriano de Azevedo Marques Neto, a lawyer for Amobitec (Brazilian Association of Mobility and Technology), which represents app-based service providers.
“[The motorcycle taxi service] is no more dangerous than individual motorcycle transport or the activity of an iFood delivery driver, for example,” he says.
Marques Neto, who is also a minister of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), says that the platforms themselves have mechanisms to ensure that drivers avoid abuses—such as ratings, panic buttons, and others.
“Otherwise, after all, they will be removed from the platform,” says the lawyer, for whom “whoever starts the service on December 11th is not committing any illegality.”
Folha de S.Paulo, December 4, 2025, 11:00 PM
