International: Taxi News from Italy

Ranking of taxi satisfaction in European cities

The Italian taxi association Uritaxi reports on a study (by Uritaxi and Lab21), which examined satisfaction with taxi services in various European (capital) cities in January 2025 and notes that the results for Italy [as well as for Germany with Berlin, Ed.] lie slightly above the European median. In first place is Vienna (Austria), followed by Stockholm (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark); the tail-enders of this ranking are Warsaw (Poland), Tirana (Albania) and in last place Athens (Greece). (February 2025, source: uritaxi.it/gradimento-del-servizio-taxi-in-italia/)

A new draft bill would lead to disadvantages for taxis and passengers and would serve only ride-hailing services

Additionally, Uritaxi reports on "a proposal of the draft law for the reform of non-scheduled public transport," which is justified by the enormous difficulties that the sector has faced after the pandemic. This draft law provides that the awarding of NCC permits [rental cars, including Uber & Co., Editor's note] be transferred from the municipalities to the regions [comparable to federal states in Germany, Editor's note]. The association first tries to refute the reasoning and the communicated advantages of this draft law, in order to subsequently set out the negative consequences of such a law in the association's view, namely longer rather than shorter processing times as well as a shift of the services to more attractive areas at the expense of less attractive areas and their inhabitants. In addition, the association states (quote):

that the reform would, unfortunately, simply run counter to the wishes of those who currently violate the industry regulations. We refer to those NCC operators who illegally and permanently relocated from their approving municipality to wealthier municipalities, and to those multinational companies that have already—even in the press—stated that NCC vehicles should be deployed according to a disposition logic organized on a regional basis.

And likewise, in order to accommodate these today illegal wishes, the abolition of the binding requirement to the operating base for NCC is envisaged. Have the signatories of the law wondered whether this does not collide with Article 3 of the Constitution? This abolition would indeed make the NCC effectively a "street NCC," i.e., a taxi. The difference would be that it would not be subject to the user-protection rules that apply to taxis, thereby receiving preferential treatment over them and thus a phenomenon of unfair competition would arise.

The bill also provides for the abolition of the obligation to fill out a digital trip log, which is referred to as a [data-protection] “record.” The justification appears to be a pretext. For if the recording of a number of personal data as well as the start and end dates of a trip on a public platform solely for the purpose of monitoring the proper execution of the services rendered constitutes a “record” — what then about registration via a private app, in which personal, financial, destination, tracking and movement data as well as usage habits are provided, as is the case with the apps of the large multinational platforms?

It has been said that the reform is being carried out in the interests of citizens. After all that has been said, however, it seems to us to move exactly in the opposite direction and to represent, rather, a kind of amnesty for the conduct of operators and multinational companies that are currently acting illegally (contra legem) (End of quote). (20 October 2025, source: uritaxi.it/articoli/riforma-taxi-ncc-andrea-caroppo/)

Sexual assaults by Uber drivers as a structural problem?

A report filed in Milan by a young foreign tourist regarding sexual violence by a rental-car driver prompted Uritaxi to report on the blatant safety risks for passengers in connection with modern rental-car practices, according to the association’s view (supported by numerous sources).

Uritaxi President Claudio Giudici calls for clear rules and responsibilities to avoid platform risks, and for the rapid implementation of the provisions of Law 12/19 regulating digital brokerage services. He also criticizes that without the digital trip log traceability would be lacking and warns of unequal competitive conditions between taxis and platform services. He calls on the authorities to take the dangers of opacity seriously. According to Uritaxi, important government decrees on platform regulation are being hindered by lobby groups with economic interests.

It will then be shown, using several international cases, that platform services like Uber have worldwide, structural safety problems, for example:

• United States: Uber’s latest Safety Report for 2019–2020 recorded 3,824 reports in the five most severe categories of sexual assaults, including 141 rapes in 2020 — according to Uritaxi, evidence of a systemic problem that the company itself acknowledges it must address. In August 2025, women's rights organizations reported that on Uber rides an average of one case of sexual violence occurs every eight minutes.
• United Kingdom: Transport for London deemed Uber “not suitable” to hold a license in 2019 after serious safety gaps in the driver-matching system were found

Moreover, allegations of violations of data protection and IT security have marked recent history. Precedents would show that the protection of sensitive data of users and drivers cannot be left to internal corporate policies alone, but requires independent oversight and effective sanctions for violations.

In the course of the article, further "Algorithmic discrimination and remuneration" and "Rights of people with disabilities" are addressed as additional problem areas in connection with the mentioned service providers. (September 2025, source: uritaxi.it/articoli/serve-sicurezza-vera-regolazione-responsabilita-e-trasparenza-a-tutela-dei-passeggeri-i-decreti-non-possono-piu-attendere/)

USA: Class action against Uber by victims of sexually abusive Uber drivers

That the issue of sexual violence, alongside the numerous victims of sexually abusive Uber drivers worldwide, is also currently a major problem for Uber itself, especially in the USA, is shown by another news item from the taxi association Uritaxi. According to this, a federal judge in the USA has denied Uber's motion to dismiss several pilot lawsuits related to alleged sexual assaults by drivers. This would pave the way for the first so-called bellwether process [roughly translated: "benchmark trial"], which according to the report is to begin on December 8, 2025. The pilot proceedings are said to aim to determine average damages that juries in the numerous similar lawsuits could set. Currently there are more than 2,800 lawsuits against Uber in the USA due to sexual assaults by Uber drivers, in which the company is accused of not adequately ensuring passenger safety.

According to the information, the cases are being consolidated in a class action before a federal court in California under the supervision of Judge Charles R. Breyer. He had only dismissed part of the counts, while the core of the allegations continued to be pursued. Observers, according to Uritaxi, expected that the results of the upcoming pilot trials could have a decisive influence on possible future settlement negotiations. The development will be closely watched by the industry, as it could have significant financial and legal consequences for Uber. (August 2025, source: uritaxi.it/articoli/il-giudice-respinge-il-tentativo-di-uber-di-archiviare-tutte-le-cause-pilota-per-aggressioni-sessuali-commesse-da-autisti/)

Court rules provision of the Italian Ministry of Transport unlawful

According to the Unione Radiotaxi d’Italia (URI, association of taxi radio taxis in Italy), the Lazio Administrative Court, in a ruling dated 17 October 2025, declared unlawful a provision of the Italian Ministry of Transport. It had provided that the licensing and updating of taxi and hire-car vehicles (NCC) could only be completed after prior entry in the national RENT register. The court granted the claim of an entrepreneurs’ association and ruled that the ministry had overstepped its powers, since the entry by law is only informational in character. As a result, the register would remain in place but would lose its blocking effect on administrative procedures. Taxi and NCC businesses could therefore resume their usual licensing and updating procedures normally. URI welcomed the decision and stressed that digitisation in the transport sector should simplify things and not create new bureaucratic hurdles. (24 October 2025, source: unioneradiotaxi.it/chi-siamo)

First national roaming system for taxi apps launched in Italy

According to a report from the Italian news site Taxi.it, Italy had already officially launched mid-year the Italian Taxi Network (ITN), described as the first national roaming system for taxi apps in Italy and Europe. The project originated from the collaboration of the three largest providers appTaxi, BTaxi and TaxiMove and is intended to allow booking a taxi in over 50 cities via a single app. Users could, according to the description, order taxis in various regions without additional registration and thus use a unified system from Milan to Palermo.