In April of this year Uber was banned in Belgium after it was taken to court by taxi companies who claimed that it failed to comply with local regulations. Uber has defied the ban and kept operating - at the risk of fines of €10,000 per car.

Brussels' Minister for transport, Pascal Smet is preparing an attempt to take criminal action against the company. Local reports say that he is going to send a letter to the state police computer crime unit - asking it to block Uber's website.

He is also going to contact Apple and Google to request that they remove Uber from their app stores. Google has a substantial stake in Uber, so it is unlikely that the app will disappear from its Google Play Store any time soon.

The car hire service is facing legal difficulties in a number of European jurisdictions. It was ordered to shut down in Madrid after local taxi drivers protested. 

UberPop -  a service that lets individuals register as a driver and occasionally operate as a 'pop-up' taxi driver - has been banned in the Netherlands.

In Germany the company has faced a number of legal challenges, it had an injunction imposed against its services, but it was later lifted.

Uber's Belgium operation doesn't seem to be too worried about the potential legal action. The only announcement on its website since this story broke is one promoting its new UberTree service which transports Christmas trees.