The BlaBlaCar case: what went to court and whether it works for getting to Madrid airport

The BlaBlaCar case was the lawsuit in which Confebus, the association of road passenger transport operators, sued the platform for unfair competition before a commercial court in Madrid. What was at issue was whether its drivers share the costs of a journey they were going to make anyway, which is allowed, or whether they carry passengers without the authorisation required by law. The claim failed at first instance and BlaBlaCar is still operating in Spain. Does it work for getting to Madrid airport? In some cases: it is designed for journeys between cities and rarely ends at Barajas, so the usual approach is to reach Madrid by car-share and cover the last stretch to the terminal by public transport or taxi.

BlaBlaCar puts drivers who are about to make a journey, usually between cities, in touch with people who want to go to the same destination. Passengers pay a contribution towards the costs (fuel, tolls) and the platform handles the booking. For the bus sector, which works with authorisations and public service obligations, that model competed with its scheduled routes on the most popular journeys. These were, in essence, the two positions:

The first-instance ruling, widely reported at the time, rejected the claim: it found that the platform acts as an intermediary between individuals who share costs and not as a transport company. To find out the current status of the case or the terms of use, the reliable thing is to check official sources or the platform itself.

The key is the profit motive. If the driver was going to make the journey anyway and the passengers just help pay for fuel and tolls, it is considered shared use of the vehicle. If they organise journeys to make money, charge more than the trip costs or turn it into their source of income, the activity looks much more like professional transport, and that is regulated.

It is the same boundary that was debated in the Uber case in Spain, with one important difference: UberPop operated within the city and with a price per ride, whereas BlaBlaCar focuses on long journeys with shared costs. That is why the taxi sector followed the case closely: any decision about what counts as professional transport affects those who work with a municipal licence, a driver's permit, passenger insurance and official fares, obligations that give travellers clear safeguards.

The driver posts the origin, destination, date, time and free seats, and sets the meeting point; the trip depends on them keeping to it. It is an economical way to travel between cities, but with a flight involved it is worth bearing its limits in mind:

• Someone else's schedule: the driver decides the departure time and may be late or cancel. With a flight, anything unexpected matters more.
• Drop-off point: the trip usually ends somewhere in the city, not at the terminal.
• Luggage: the boot is shared with other passengers, and a large suitcase or a baby seat may not fit.
• Early mornings: very early flights coincide with hours when there are hardly any trips posted.
• Return: when you land, you do not know whether you will make a car-share arranged in advance.

It is recommended to be at the airport about two hours before European flights and three before international ones; in how early to arrive at T4 we explain how to work it out.

If you arrive in Madrid by car-share, have the last stretch sorted: choose a trip that drops you at a well-connected point, allow a generous margin in case the driver is late and book the taxi from that point in advance. That way the critical stretch, the one that ends at the terminal, does not depend on anyone else.

You can book your airport taxi by giving the pickup address and time, and see the fixed price straight away: from Inside the M-30 it is €33, and the other areas are in our fares. If you arrive by train, there is a guide to combining the AVE and a taxi from Atocha; if there are several of you with suitcases, a seven-seater taxi saves you splitting into two cars.

And if what you are after is paying less by sharing the cost, a taxi lets you do that legally too: a group travelling together pays for a single journey at a fixed price, easy to split. We give you some ideas in save money by sharing a taxi and, to see all the alternatives, in the ways to get to Barajas Airport.