Antitrust and Art reject Salvini's decrees on Ncc: they crush freedom of enterprise

Five critical profiles capable of altering competition. And they were put down in black and white by the Antitrust and the Transportation Regulatory Authority in a joint opinion that Il Sole 24 Ore is able to anticipate. In the crosshairs is the Salvini package, the reform of chauffeur-driven hire that is shaking up the non-scheduled transport sector, starting with taxis and ending with those directly concerned, the people of the 'black cars'. The joint opinion registered on 11 June sets out the authorities' observations in 15 pages. Beginning with the minimum waiting time (waiting time), the obligation for Ncc drivers to wait at least 30 minutes from the time of booking before carrying out a transport service. For Antitrust and Art, this is a prescription that "unjustifiably hinders the exercise of business activity as well as depreciating the usefulness of intermediation apps between supply and demand".

The new provisions in the pipeline represent "a discriminatory and unjustified burden for the operators of the Ncc service" that "only seem to protect the economic interest of taxi service operators", while "reasons of general interest such as the proper management of transport, traffic and respect for the environment seem to be sacrificed". The new regulations envisaged in the draft 'Salvini decrees' would further diminish 'the already inadequate supply of local public transport services, with tangible consequences on traffic conditions and the environment.

Another remark that emerges from the document jointly signed by Antitrust Chairman Roberto Rustichelli and Art Chairman Nicola Zaccheo concerns the obligation for users - before sending a request for a transport service via app and before receiving an estimate of the car's arrival time and the cost of the ride - to choose whether to use the taxi or the Ncc service. The risk, the two authorities point out, is "the impossibility of comparing the quality and convenience of the two services to the detriment of consumers". Not only: the way it is written, the draft of the Dpcm regulating the 'technological platforms of intermediation between supply and demand of non-scheduled public bus services' makes it difficult, if not impossible, for territorial authorities to 'verify the correct fulfilment of public service obligations', as it does not provide for ad hoc regulations on the subject. The shortcoming is made even more serious by the fact that the draft Dpcm places 'important limitations on the type of data, including statistical data, present in the archives of carriers and contracts and collected by the technological platforms that can be accessed by the entities that perform institutional functions in the sector, compromising the performance of the functions assigned to them'. A further critical issue concerns the failure to provide for "rules aimed at protecting the freedom to provide services by the various operators in the use of the platforms themselves".

A further remark concerns one of the main "knots" of the contrast - ongoing for years - between operators and Ncc acronyms and the ministry of Porta Pia: the "persistent failure to adopt the national public register of companies that provide taxi and Ncc services", the so-called "National Register" (the subject of a Ministerial Decree that is part of the "Salvini package") provided for by a law of 2019 but never adopted, a fact that "unjustifiably blocks the issuance of new Ncc authorisations for several years now". "From a competitive point of view", the stop on new licences, which was supposed to be "only temporary", Agcm and Art emphasise, "turns out to be particularly restrictive and harmful in that it unjustifiably and sine die prevents the entry of new Nccs onto the market and does not allow the structural insufficiency of the supply of non-scheduled local public transport services to meet the growing demand for such services". The 'combined combination' of the blocking of new Ncc licences and the failure of municipalities to publish public tenders for the issuance of new taxi licences contributes "to paralysing the necessary adjustment of the offer of local public transport services, given that a significant part of them remains constantly unsatisfied and that this situation is destined to exacerbate in the face of future and significant increases in demand".

The two authorities' severe judgement reinforces the line of protest and mobilisation carried out in recent months by the unions representing the Ncc transport services. "The clear and balanced opinion of the Antitrust and Transport Regulatory Authority is an unmissable opportunity for the government to finally start working to give Italy a law on non-scheduled public transport that is effective and up to what the country is asking for," stresses Andrea Romano, president of MuoverSì-Federazione NCC e Mobilità, in a note. After renewing the request for a meeting with Minister Salvini Romano confirms the category's willingness 'to collaborate with the government and parliament so that the historic result of a new framework law can be achieved. We want to believe," the note concludes, "that MIT and the government will listen to the voice of the guarantee authorities, which once again highlight the urgency of a new law and the absurdity of the additional obstacles being placed in the way of mobility in our cities and the freedom to work of tens of thousands of NCC operators and companies.