The entire country of Italy has banned Uber.
Italy's existing major taxi association claims that Uber poses an unfair advantage, and a court in Rome ruled in their favor. Now, the ride-sharing service is prohibited from offering its Lux, X, SUV, XL, Select, and Van services in all of Italy. The company can't even advertise in Italy.
Since the ruling on Friday, April 7, the company has ten days to comply or else it faces a 10,000 euro per day fine. The case was built on legislation that was passed in 1992 that specifies how and where taxi companies can make their bookings. We're not experts in law of any sort, but it appears that the first fight against Uber began in 2014. If you're really interested in the case, you can read the
2015 English summation.
While Italian taxi cab drivers will keep their jobs, so will Uber lawyers – at least for some time to come. Unsurprisingly, the ride-sharing behemoth is planning for a long legal battle with the Italian government. In a statement made to Italian press, Uber says that it's unfair to hinder their operations by an obsolete law and that in 1992 mobile apps weren't even conceived.
“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.”
Uber also says they were "shocked" by the ruling. What do you think? Based on Uber's past do you think the company will comply? Let us know in the comments below!
