Uber faces penalties in Milan amid issue in Italy

Car-hailing app Uber has faced first penalties and confiscations in Italy's Milan, where the San Francisco-based start-up has run into fierce controversy with taxi companies in recent months, amid a debate on related legislation for the app's use in Italy.

Established in more than 250 cities across the world and backed by investors such as Google, Uber is a smartphone app which receives ride requests for the Uber Black, a limo service, and Uber Pop, a ride share service.

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.

"The Milan municipality is determined to tackle irregularities in car rental services ... also against Uber," Milan's Councilor for Mobility and the Environment Pierfrancesco Maran told Xinhua.

Between January and November of last year, local police have ascertained 98 violations related to Uber, he said.

A team of some 10 police officers are at work in Milan to identify and impose penalties on the illegal pick up services.

"We have been helped in our work by taxi drivers, who have indicated to us the number plates of Uber vehicles," one of the police officers explained to Xinhua.

"Thanks to their warnings, we were able to stop those cars and question passengers," he said. In other cases, police officers discovered the illegal pick up services through security cameras in Milan, or when they became subscribers to the smartphone app.

Penalties for the illicit pick up services amount to around 2,000 euros (about 2,368 U.S. dollars). Private cars using the service without a limo license have their vehicles impounded and their driving licenses suspended for a year.

However, Maran pointed out, the transport issue is regulated at the national level and Milan has to comply with related changes as they unfold. In fact, Uber has appealed to judicial authorities and thus their penalties and confiscations are hanging.

Last year, the Italian minister of infrastructure and transport, Maurizio Lupi declared Uber Pop to be illegal. However, Uber, whose Italian headquarters are based in Milan, continues to say it operates in line with the current regulations. Meanwhile, the Italian Competition Authority has put in a good word for the app, calling on the removal of obstacles which hamper free competition in the public transport service industry.

"The result is that the issue has fallen into limbo in our country," said Vincenzo Mazza, the director and co-owner of one of Milan's taxi companies which comprises some 1,400 vehicles.

Last March, taxi drivers marched through Milan in protest against Uber, which Mazza estimated has about 200 vehicles in the city.

"We do not oppose non-profit ride-sharing service, such as car sharing which is widespread in the city, or services pairing up car owners with passengers who only pay the driver to cover the costs of the ride," he told Xinhua.

But this is not the case with Uber, Mazza stressed. Moreover, he added, ineffective handling of the issue in Italy could encourage the spread of more illegal services, especially given the upcoming opening of the six-month world exposition in Milan on May 1.

"We urge Italian authorities both at the national and local level to intervene effectively, as already happened in other European countries, to crack down on ride services that are totally illegal," he highlighted.

《Uber faces penalties in Milan amid issue in Italy》永久阅读地址: http://91kudian.com/yingyu/18602/