A court in Rome, Italy has banned Uber throughout the country. Italy banned Uber in response to the complaint by the Taxi Unions. The court has given Uber 10 days to stop using the Uber mobile application in Italy.
The court in Italy banned Uber by saying that the mobile app cab-hailing service was contributing to traditional taxis facing unfair competition.
The current ruling is subject to appeal. The court in Italy banned Uber and also gave it ten days to end the use of its different mobile OS applications within the Italian territory. This court ruling against Uber in Italy also means an end to the company’s advertising and promotion.
Italy Banned Uber – The Cab Service’s Rely
Here is how Uber responded to the ruling by the Italian court in a statement.
“We are shocked by the Italian’s court decision and will appeal. Thousands of professional, licensed drivers use the Uber app to make money and provide reliable transportation at the push of a button for Italians. We will appeal this ruling that is based on a 25-year-old law. Now the government can’t waste more time and needs to decide whether it wants to remain anchored to the past, protecting privileged profits, or whether it wants to allow Italian to benefit from new technologies.”
It is not the first time Uber has faced legal woes in Italy. Before Italy banned Uber, it also barred the use of company’s Uberpop application, which was considered to encourage providing of taxis services by unlicensed drivers. Uber did try to appeal against that decision but failed to convince the court in Turin.
The lawyers representing the Italian taxi unions were jubilant at court’s decision. Italy banned Uber because of its unfair competition. Here is lawyers told a local Italian newspaper about their opinion on court’s decision.
“This is the fourth ruling by an Italian judge that ascertains Uber’s unfair competition, the latest battle in a legal war that began in 2015 to stop the most striking form of unfair competition ever registered on the Italian local public transportation market.”
Uber is already planning to appeal the ban. The cab-hailing service will appeal within the allotted ten days, or it will have to cease its operations in the country. However, if the company fails to stop its services or appeal, it will have to pay a penalty of $10,600 every single day.
Uber is already struggling with media outlets that have lashed out against it for its poor treatment of drivers and female employees. Besides the PR issues, the company is embroiled with Alphabet’s Waymo Division over trade secret theft.
