5 ms·

Italy issues a nationwide Uber ban

19 points by crivabene 10y ago

draw_down 10y ago
Won't they just... continue to operate? Seems like that's how they tend to handle this sort of situation.
- crivabene 10y ago
  We'll see. They can try to get an appeal court order blocking the original one, or they can just continue to operate and pay the 10k/day fine, which is nothing for them. The problem is that if they do so then I am sure they'll not make their life easy...
- dingo_bat 10y ago
  Can confirm. I'm in Bangalore, and a few months ago the city banned Uber pool. The next day Uber sent out an email "all pool rides are now ₹49". They eventually got the order overturned in a couple of weeks (by suing the city I guess). But they never stopped operating.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Governments could always require ISPs in a country to blackhole DNS to Uber's API endpoints. Or blackhole traffic to their netblocks. Uber is not above reproach.
- Markoff 10y ago
  I would say 3 million EUR monthly fee to operate in whole Italy is too low, they should step up their game and make the fine at least 20-50x higher to consider it fine and not fee
  - crivabene 10y ago
    The fine is actually 10k a day, so 300k/month, not 3 million.
    - Markoff 10y ago
      ah yeah, couldn't edit and didn't noticed it first time, so it's even smaller pocket money
Safety1stClyde 10y ago
What is Uber except for a kind of insane taxi hailing system? Here today, gone tomorrow!
- crivabene 10y ago
  A taxi hailing system valued 70 billion.
  - Safety1stClyde 10y ago
    Exactly, it's valued at 70 billion and it's a taxi hailing system.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    myspace was also valued pretty high in past, so was Yahoo i can live without Uber, there are tons of LEGAL alternatives respecting local laws, we don't really need this bully company
- beezischillin 10y ago
  Uber has it's ups: it's easy to use, it's a great option for travel abroad, where getting a cab is more complicated. It is, on the other hand, highly unprofessional. When you call a cab, you know you're gonna get a cab and probably get to your destination without much fuss. When you call an uber there's a pretty definite chance of the driver that accepts your fare just drives by you and pisses off. That's a problem, especially when you're in a hurry. Legality and morality-wise, however it's a completely different bag: they not only skirt and exploit laws that are made for the passenger's safety, that actual taxi drivers can't just skimp on, thus having a highly immoral and gray-to-illegal advantage over them. They also dodge taxes, like there's no tomorrow and they refuse to comply with any sort of regulations or legal pressure to compete fairly - they just leave. Overall their presence is a net loss to a country. I would take the more expensive, flawed, but reliable option to a cheaper, unreliable option that also causes damage via predatory behaviour, thank you.
  - Markoff 10y ago
m-j-fox 10y ago
It's fashionable to hate on Uber these days. But does anyone really want to go back to the bad old days of taxis? No thank you Italy.
- stryk 10y ago
  What's wrong with taxis? Genuine question. Won't a taxi cab get you to where you need to go just the same? They may not have an app, but you can probably use your phone to call them.
  - SteveNuts 10y ago
    Leaving the bar at 2:00am, trying to find a number for a cab company, calling their dispatch and communicate your location, then you hope the taxi actually shows up (you have no idea how long it will take, or if they actually will show up at all), being pressured to pay in cash because their credit card reader is "broken", and not knowing how much the total will be until you arrive... There's a huge list of reasons why Uber is nice to have, taxis and Uber are not even close.
    - Markoff 10y ago
      where do you live that taxi companies don't have there yet apps? heck wet have already aggregators so you don't need bunch of apps so what's benefit for user? all i see at Uber is avoiding taxes and breaking competition by ignoring regulation which is why they are not that big in EU
    - lactau 10y ago
      Are you still in 2004?
  - thatoneguy 10y ago
    I'm no fan of Uber but taxis in Rome, Italy, at least, are the worst out of ~40 countries I've been to. And when you write the city to try and complain after photographing the taxi that ripped you off? They basically ask you fill out a novel. :-/
  - 10y ago

19 points by crivabene 10y ago

draw_down 10y ago

Won't they just... continue to operate? Seems like that's how they tend to handle this sort of situation.

crivabene 10y ago
We'll see. They can try to get an appeal court order blocking the original one, or they can just continue to operate and pay the 10k/day fine, which is nothing for them. The problem is that if they do so then I am sure they'll not make their life easy...
dingo_bat 10y ago
Can confirm. I'm in Bangalore, and a few months ago the city banned Uber pool. The next day Uber sent out an email "all pool rides are now ₹49". They eventually got the order overturned in a couple of weeks (by suing the city I guess). But they never stopped operating.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Governments could always require ISPs in a country to blackhole DNS to Uber's API endpoints. Or blackhole traffic to their netblocks. Uber is not above reproach.
Markoff 10y ago
I would say 3 million EUR monthly fee to operate in whole Italy is too low, they should step up their game and make the fine at least 20-50x higher to consider it fine and not fee
- crivabene 10y ago
  The fine is actually 10k a day, so 300k/month, not 3 million.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    ah yeah, couldn't edit and didn't noticed it first time, so it's even smaller pocket money

Safety1stClyde 10y ago

What is Uber except for a kind of insane taxi hailing system? Here today, gone tomorrow!

crivabene 10y ago
A taxi hailing system valued 70 billion.
- Safety1stClyde 10y ago
  Exactly, it's valued at 70 billion and it's a taxi hailing system.
- Markoff 10y ago
  myspace was also valued pretty high in past, so was Yahoo i can live without Uber, there are tons of LEGAL alternatives respecting local laws, we don't really need this bully company
beezischillin 10y ago
Uber has it's ups: it's easy to use, it's a great option for travel abroad, where getting a cab is more complicated. It is, on the other hand, highly unprofessional. When you call a cab, you know you're gonna get a cab and probably get to your destination without much fuss. When you call an uber there's a pretty definite chance of the driver that accepts your fare just drives by you and pisses off. That's a problem, especially when you're in a hurry. Legality and morality-wise, however it's a completely different bag: they not only skirt and exploit laws that are made for the passenger's safety, that actual taxi drivers can't just skimp on, thus having a highly immoral and gray-to-illegal advantage over them. They also dodge taxes, like there's no tomorrow and they refuse to comply with any sort of regulations or legal pressure to compete fairly - they just leave. Overall their presence is a net loss to a country. I would take the more expensive, flawed, but reliable option to a cheaper, unreliable option that also causes damage via predatory behaviour, thank you.
- Markoff 10y ago

m-j-fox 10y ago

It's fashionable to hate on Uber these days. But does anyone really want to go back to the bad old days of taxis? No thank you Italy.

stryk 10y ago
What's wrong with taxis? Genuine question. Won't a taxi cab get you to where you need to go just the same? They may not have an app, but you can probably use your phone to call them.
- SteveNuts 10y ago
  Leaving the bar at 2:00am, trying to find a number for a cab company, calling their dispatch and communicate your location, then you hope the taxi actually shows up (you have no idea how long it will take, or if they actually will show up at all), being pressured to pay in cash because their credit card reader is "broken", and not knowing how much the total will be until you arrive... There's a huge list of reasons why Uber is nice to have, taxis and Uber are not even close.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    where do you live that taxi companies don't have there yet apps? heck wet have already aggregators so you don't need bunch of apps so what's benefit for user? all i see at Uber is avoiding taxes and breaking competition by ignoring regulation which is why they are not that big in EU
  - lactau 10y ago
    Are you still in 2004?
- thatoneguy 10y ago
  I'm no fan of Uber but taxis in Rome, Italy, at least, are the worst out of ~40 countries I've been to. And when you write the city to try and complain after photographing the taxi that ripped you off? They basically ask you fill out a novel. :-/
- 10y ago