U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft on Wednesday announced that it’s buying European taxi app Free Now in a 175 million euro ($199 million) deal.

The company said that the acquisition — Lyft’s first in Europe — is expected to close in the second half of 2025, and that, once combined, the two companies will serve over 50 million combined annual users.

Founded in 2009 as myTaxi, Free Now is a ride-hailing platform headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has been jointly owned by German automotive giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz since 2019.

The app is available in over 150 cities across nine countries, including Ireland, the U.K., Germany and France. Beyond traditional taxi and ride-hailing services, Free Now also offers other mobility options including e-scooters, e-mopeds and e-bikes.

The startup is earnings-positive on the basis of Earnings Before Interest, Debt and Amortization, generating gross bookings over 1 billion euros in 2024, according to a company fact sheet.

Acquiring Free Now will give Lyft a route to expand into the highly competitive European ride-hailing market, where it will come up against the likes of Uber, Estonia’s Bolt and Israel’s Gett.

Lyft CEO David Risher told CNBC that the company is only now entering Europe because it saw an opportunity to expand after steadily improving the service in North America.

Noting that Thursday will mark his two-year anniversary as Lyft CEO, Risher said: “When I started, unfortunately, we were losing share, we were losing money. We weren’t doing so great for riders or drivers.”

“Now, we pick you up about a minute faster, driver cancelation is down to less than 5%, drivers are making billions of dollars on the platform. And our Canada operation has doubled this year over last year.”

He added: “So, looking at the strong service levels, looking at the fact that internationally, within Canada, we’re doing quite well. Now we said, ‘You know what, now is the time?”

Lyft’s closest domestic rival, Uber, has a lengthy head start on the firm, having first launched in the U.K. back in 2012. It has since been beset by a series of regulatory issues.

London’s transport regulators tried to ban Uber two times over safety concerns. The company was eventually awarded a fresh license to continue operating in the city in 2022.

JPMorgan Chase this week began suing more customers it has accused of stealing funds from the nation’s largest bank in last year’s so-called “infinite money glitch.”

The bank is now going after customers who allegedly stole amounts below $75,000, which means it is filing complaints in state courts, instead of the federal venues it chose last year, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s deliberations.

The glitch, which went viral in late August in videos posted to social media, allowed customers to withdraw the entire value of a fraudulent check before it bounced.

“On August 29, 2024, a masked man deposited a check in Defendant’s Chase bank account in the amount of $73,000.00,” the bank said in a suit filed Tuesday afternoon in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

By the time the check bounced six days later, a series of cash withdrawals at two Chase branches in the state totaling $82,500 had been made, according to the bank.

The accused, whose name is being withheld by CNBC until she can respond, owes the bank $57,847.69, and hasn’t complied with requests to return the funds, according to the lawsuit.

Besides the Georgia case, the bank is filing lawsuits in state venues in Miami, Florida; the Bronx, New York; and two Texas counties, said the person, who declined to be identified speaking about the bank’s plans.

The episode highlights the lengths JPMorgan will go to to claw back funds it is owed and to deter future crimes. The bank looked at thousands of potential cases, choosing to litigate the largest amounts with the clearest pattern of theft, said the person familiar.

The bank has also sent letters to more than 1,000 customers demanding they repay funds since October, this person said. Some people returned money on their own after CNBC reported in October that the bank was going after potential fraudsters who had drawn down the largest amounts, said the person.

The lawsuits are separate from potential criminal cases that both federal and state law enforcement may be pursuing, according to the bank.

“We’re still investigating cases of fraud and cooperating with law enforcement — and we’ll do that for as long as it takes to hold fraudsters accountable,” Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for the New York-based bank, said in a statement.