Consulta, it is not up to the State to impose constraints on Ncc to compete with taxis
According to the Court, the time constraint of 20 minutes between one taxi service and the next is 'a disproportionate measure in relation to the anti-avoidance purpose, which is to prevent the taxi service from targeting an undifferentiated clientele, reserved only for taxi licence holders'
by Flavia Landolfi and Vittorio Nuti
It is not for the State to adopt acts imposing obligations and prohibitions on the operators of the rental with driver (Ncc) service, which are such as to pursue by disproportionate means the competitive objective of ensuring that only taxis can address an undifferentiated user base. By overstepping the limits of the State's competence in the field of 'protection of competition' and regulating the operation of the Ncc service, the State has invaded the field of regional competence 'local public transport'. This is what we read in the ruling of the Constitutional Court number 163, filed today, which upheld the conflicts of attribution between entities promoted by the Regione Calabria against the Interministerial Decree 226/2024 (also known as Dm Salvini on the Ncc electronic service sheet) and its implementing circulars.
The Court's pronouncement rejects in particular one of the cornerstones of the Electronic Service Sheet decree: the mandatory 20-minute stop between one Ncc service and another. The judges in fact ruled that it was not up to the State - and, specifically, to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport - to adopt, with the aforementioned acts, provisions that: "(i) introduce the time constraint of at least twenty minutes between the booking and the start of the Ncc service (...); (ii) prevent the stipulation of duration contracts with Ncc operators to subjects that also indirectly carry out intermediation activities; (iii) impose on the Ncc operator the exclusive use of the ministerial computer application for the compilation of the electronic service sheet".
20-minute break "disproportionate measure"
According to the Court, the time constraint of twenty minutes is "a disproportionate measure in relation to the anti-avoidance purpose, which is intended to prevent the Ncc service from being directed to an undifferentiated clientele, reserved solely for holders of taxi licences". This regulation, moreover, indirectly reproposes obligations provided for by state regulations that have already been declared constitutionally illegitimate with sentence no. 56 of 2020.
Furthermore, the prohibition to enter into duration contracts with the NCC service operator for those who only indirectly carry out intermediation activities also exceeds the aforementioned anti-avoidance purpose and unduly compresses contractual autonomy. Economic operators (such as, for instance, hotels, travel agencies or tour operators) are, in fact, prevented from providing their customers with certain, swift and cost-optimal transport services.
