PARIS (AP) — France's top administrative court has upheld the right of car services like Uber to use geolocalization for potential customers, dealing a blow to a law pushed by taxi drivers who say the app-based ride-hailing company is competing unfairly.

Wednesday's decision found that the law violated European Union rules by targeting a specific service. But the decision upheld France's effort more generally to regulate car services. French taxi drivers have protested repeatedly, and sometimes violently, against Uber, and two of its French executives went on trial over allegations that the company's now-defunct low-cost offering operated illegally.

Uber continues to operate with professional drivers in France. It is banned entirely in Spain and Italy and under pressure elsewhere in Europe.