Sao Paulo, Feb 28 (EFE).– About 1,500 taxi drivers took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday to demand a peaceful debate on ride-sharing service Uber and other transportation companies in this Brazilian city.

“Our union doesn’t want violence, we’ll never lead a union incentivized by violence,” Sao Paulo Taxi Drivers Union president Natalicio Bezerra told the G1 news Web site.

Since arriving in Brazil in 2014, Uber has been at the center of a heated debate over the legitimacy and legality of its ride-sharing application, with regulators now investigating the allegedly “anti-competitive” practices of taxi companies. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, military police in Sao Paulo were deployed to stop Uber drivers from operating.

The taxi drivers union, for its part, alleges that Uber is engaged in unfair competition, while users of the ride-sharing service contend they are getting more personalized service at a lower cost based on kilometers traveled and not minutes.

Brazil’s CADE anti-monopoly agency agreed late last year to take up a complaint from Uber and investigate the practices of the taxi industry and its affiliated organizations, which the ride-sharing service accused of engaging in “violence” and making “serious threats” against drivers and customers who used the app.

Bezerra on Sunday rejected using the path of “hostility” to find a solution to the situation, adding that the protest in Sao Paulo was aimed at showing that the taxi industry was “united.”

The protesters, who carried a banner that said “Taxi Drivers United for Legality and Justice,” wound their way down Avenida Paulista and ended the march at the Sao Paulo Art Museum or MASP. EFE