Uber is now banned nationwide in Italy

An Italian court has banned all of Uber’s services, after a Rome judge ruled that the firm's ride-hailing app constituted unfair competition.

According to a Reuters report, the court has banned the use of Uber's Black, Lux, Suv, X , XL, Select and Van apps and has ruled that the compnay can no longer promote or advertise its services in Italy. The lawsuit was originally filed by Italy's major traditional taxi associations over what it claimed was unfair competition from Uber. Uber's Italian lawyers have issued a statement, as obtained by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, in which they say: "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 Italians to benefit from new technologies.” However, lawyers for Italy’s taxi associations praised the ruling, and told the newspaper that Uber represents "the most striking form of unfair competition ever registered on the Italian local public transportation market." Uber says it will appeal the ruling, which it has 10 days to do before it is legally obligated to cease operating in Italy or face fines up to $10,600 a day for each day it continues operating its services in the counrty. The company won a similar court case in London last year, in which the High Court in London ruled Uber was not breaking the law with its taxi service app. Transport for London brought the case under pressure from black cab owners in the city, but Lord Justice Ouseley ruled that a device which uses GPS and external servers to calculate fares does not make it a taximeter – a device which only black cabs are allowed to use.