Arrivederci, Uber.
Late last week, ride sharing company Uber faced a whopper of a court ruling as it has now been given 10 days to cease and vacate the country of Italy after being banned for unfair competition there.
Effective throughout the country, the ruling came from a judge in Rome who emerged in favour of Italy’s taxi unions and associations in their fight against Uber, the culmination of a tussle that started over 2 years ago when the service started there.
Yes, the ruling is still subject to appeal, but the 10-day timeframe applies nonetheless, meaning Uber’s Black, X, XL, SUV, and LUX can no longer operate within Italian borders past that point and all advertising from the company is barred until further notice.
Should Uber not cooperate, it could be faced with 10,000 Euro fine for each day it decides to stay in operation (illegally) after the 10 day period expires. In a statement to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Uber’s lawyers expressed their shock over the court’s decision, promising to appeal the ruling that’s based on a 25-year old law.
It continued: “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,”
“Thousands of professional, licensed drivers use the Uber app to make money and provide reliable transportation at the push of a button for Italians.”
Elsewhere, Uber is also facing backlash from the press over allegations of mistreatment of drivers and female employees along with a high profile legal battle with Waymo (Alphabet’s self-driving division) over the spread of stolen intellectual property and trade secrets.
Oh yes, and test cars fitted with its autonomous driving hardware seem to have trouble staying on four wheels. Being Volvos, however, at least we know they are quite safe.
