[Eridrus]

Do you think Italy's citizens are actually in favor of in maintaining the taxi monopoly?

There are reasonable reasons to require registration when cabs had to find people on the street, but mobile apps have significantly changed how drivers can operate and should result in rethinking the laws rather than blindly supporting the existing special interests.

Allegations of predatory pricing can be investigated separately if that's an actual concern.

[RobertoG]

"Do you think Italy's citizens are actually in favor of in maintaining the taxi monopoly?"

I have not idea. I suppose we should ask them, using the democratic established channels. Meanwhile, Uber should follow the law.

[JoeAltmaier]

At some point, its moot. Uber is an app. Is the app banned? How? Some national firewall?

This brave new world and such marvels in it. Reminds me of when a nation (Thailand?) 'banned' bitcoin. What on earth could that even mean?

[maxerickson]

In the case of a service app, one thing a country can do is make it hard to bank. Will people drive for Uber without getting paid? Probably not.

Same with bitcoin actually. A pretty big majority of people aren't going to use it if it is cut off from most of their local economy.

[pmontra]

Uber is a company and it moves money. I bet the app still works in Italy. Uber could block it or not. What it should not do is keep operating in Italy: not routing requests to drivers is the first important step.