Roundup: Ride share app UberPop banned in Italy for unfair competition

UberPop, the lower-cost service of car-hailing app Uber, was banned nationwide in Italy on Tuesday by a Milan court's ruling issued on grounds of "unfair competition."

Judge Claudio Marangoni ordered Uber to refrain within 15 days from operating its ride share app which allows users to be transported around by anyone including those without a professional license.

According to the judge, the activities carried out by UberPop "interfere with the taxi service organized by companies and provided by license holders."

"Without the costs incident to the taxi service, drivers can apply significantly lower tariffs compared to those of public service," which results in an "effective competitive advantage" and an "undeserved misuse of customers," the ruling read.

"Justice has been finally done, we are enthusiastic," Vito Inserrato, president of one of Milan's taxi companies which comprises some 1,400 vehicles, told Xinhua commenting on Tuesday's ruling.

"In issuing the ban, the court upheld an appeal by Milan labor unions and associations representing taxi drivers who had long rightly complained," Inserrato said.

The San Francisco-based multinational company had run into fierce controversy with taxi companies in recent months amid heated debate on related legislation for the app's use in Italy.

Under the Italian traffic legislation, a private car owner cannot take passengers for profit, while based on a law issued in 1992, hired drivers are described as a service ordered from the garage where their business is based, as different from taxis, which can pick up passengers on the move.

Over the past months, taxi drivers marched through Milan in protest against Uber, saying the ineffective handling of the issue could encourage the spread of more illegal services, especially during the ongoing six-month world exposition.

Later on Tuesday, Uber announced that it will appeal against the ban. "We will appeal to prevent hundreds of thousands of Italian citizens being deprived of a safe, reliable and economic way to move in their cities," Uber Europe's legal director Zac De Kievit said.

Italian media reported that many citizens reacted negatively to the ban on social networks, calling it unfair that Italy has to give up an innovative service which responds to market demand.

"The ban reduces the choice for citizens, which is the principle of competition in entrepreneurial activities," Carlo Rienzi, president of consumers association Codacons, told Xinhua. "The only important thing for us is that Uber cars and drivers offer safe services," he noted.

Established in nearly 300 cities across the world and backed by investors such as Google, Uber is a smartphone app which receives ride requests for Uber Black, a limo service, and UberPop.

UberPop has already been banned in other European countries such as Spain and the Netherlands, and is appealing against similar rulings in France and Germany. Uber is present in five Italian cities and has its Italian headquarters in business capital Milan. Endit