Uber Technologies, Inc. or Uber has been the subject of a number of controversies. These include both unethical business practices such as flouting local regulations and sabotaging competitors. It has also received criticism for its treatment of employees, facing claims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. Concerns have also been raised about

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

's retention of customer data, particularly in the wake of their handling of data leaks. These issues have led to the company being banned from operating in some countries.

Ignoring and evading local regulations

Uber has been criticized for its strategy of generally commencing operations in a city without regard for local regulations. If faced with regulatory opposition, Uber called for public support for its service and mounted a political campaign, supported by

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

, to change regulations. Uber argued that it is "a

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to '' ...

" and not a taxi company, and therefore it was not subject to regulations affecting taxi companies. Uber's strategy was generally to "seek forgiveness rather than permission". In 2014, with regards to airport pickups without a permit in California, drivers were actually told to ignore local regulations and that the company would pay for any citations. Uber's response to California Assembly Bill 5 (2019), whereby it announced that it would not comply with the law, then engaged lobbyists and mounted an expensive public opinion campaign to overturn it via a ballot, was cited as an example of this policy. Taxi companies sued Uber in numerous American cities, alleging that Uber's policy of violating taxi regulations was a form of unfair competition or a violation of antitrust law. Although some courts did find that Uber intentionally violated the taxi rules, Uber prevailed in every case, including the only case to proceed to trial. In March 2017, an investigation by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' revealed that Uber developed a software tool called "Greyball" to avoid giving rides to known law enforcement officers in areas where its service was illegal such as in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, Australia,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, and China. The tool identified government officials using

geofencing A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geofence could be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries). Th ...

, mining credit card databases, identifying devices, and searches of social media. While at first, Uber stated that it only used the tool to identify riders that violated its terms of service, after investigations by

, and the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

, Uber admitted to using the tool to skirt local regulations and promised not to use the tool for that purpose. The use of Greyball in London was cited by Transport for London as one of the reasons for its decision not to renew Uber's private hire operator licence in September 2017. A January 2018 report by

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...

stated that Uber routinely used a "panic button" system, codenamed "Ripley", that locked, powered off and changed passwords on staff computers when those offices were subjected to government raids. Uber allegedly used this button at least 24 times, from spring 2015 until late 2016.

Attempts to sabotage competitors

In 2014, Uber employees were caught ordering and then quickly cancelling rides on competing services

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...

and

Gett Gett, previously known as GetTaxi, is an Israeli B2B Ground Transportation Management (GTM) platform and marketplace, and B2C ride-hailing app headquartered in London, and owned by GT GetTaxi (UK) Limited Founded in 2010, Gett has raised mor ...

, in an attempt to disrupt these services. In 2014, Uber was also accused of recruiting people to use competing services for the sole purpose of recruiting their drivers to Uber, at which point the recruiter would receive a commission. Uber denied that it had any involvement with the cancellation of orders or the recruitment efforts.

Wage disputes

In January 2017, Uber agreed to pay $20 million to the Federal Trade Commission to resolve allegations of having misled drivers about potential earnings. In 2017, a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lawsuit was filed on behalf of thousands of Uber drivers, alleging that Uber’s “upfront prices” policy did not provide drivers with the 80% of fares to which they were entitled. The lawsuit was settled for $345,622, with each driver in the class getting at least $20. In May 2017, after the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in New York, Uber admitted to underpaying New York City drivers tens of millions of dollars over 2.5 years by calculating driver commissions on a net amount. Uber agreed to pay the amounts owed plus interest.

Boycott in the US

In late January 2017, GrabYourWallet advised to boycott Uber because the company did not join its Protests against Executive Order 13769, while

Travis Kalanick Travis Cordell Kalanick (; born August 6, 1976) is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was t ...

, then CEO of Uber, was a member of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's "business advisory council" and GrabYourWallet was advising boycotts of businesses with ties to Trump. Approximately 200,000 users deleted the Uber mobile app. On February 2, 2017, Kalanick resigned from the council, which disbanded in August 2017.

Sexual harassment allegations and management shakeup (2017)

On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published on her website that she was propositioned for sex by a manager and subsequently threatened with

termination of employment Termination of employment or separation of employment is an employee's departure from a job and the end of an employee's duration with an employer. Termination may be voluntary on the employee's part, or it may be at the hands of the employer, of ...

by another manager if she continued to report the incident. Kalanick was alleged to have been aware of the complaint. On February 27, 2017,

Amit Singhal Amitabh Kumar "Amit" Singhal (born September 1968) is a former senior vice president at Google Inc. having been a Google Fellow and the head of Google's Search team for 15 years.sexual harassment claim against him that occurred while he served as Vice President of

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...

. After investigations led by former attorney general

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African Amer ...

and

Arianna Huffington Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of '' Th ...

, a member of Uber's board of directors, in June 2017, Uber fired over 20 employees. Kalanick took an indefinite leave of absence but, under pressure from investors, he resigned as CEO a week later. Also departing the company in June 2017 was

Emil Michael Emil G. Michael ( ar, إيميل مايكل ; born September 19, 1972) is an Egyptian-born American businessman. Michael was the Senior Vice President of Business and Chief Business Officer at Uber, and the Chief Operating Officer of Klout. Ea ...

, a senior vice president who suggested that Uber hire a team of opposition researchers and journalists, with a million-dollar budget, to "dig up dirt" on the personal lives and backgrounds of media figures who reported negatively about Uber, specifically targeting

Sarah Lacy Sarah Ruth Lacy (born December 29, 1975) is an American technology journalist and author. Early life Lacy received her B.A. in literature from Rhodes College. Career Lacy is the former co-host of web video show Yahoo! Tech Ticker and was a colum ...

, editor of

PandoDaily PandoDaily, or simply Pando, was a web publication offering technology news, analysis, and commentary, with a focus on Silicon Valley and startup companies. History PandoDaily was started by former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy on January 16, 201 ...

, who, in an article published in October 2014, accused Uber of

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers pri ...

and

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...

in its advertising. In August 2018, Uber agreed to pay a total of $7 million to settle claims of gender discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environment, with 480 employees and former employees receiving $10,700 each and 56 of those employees and former employees receiving an additional $33,900 each. In December 2019, Kalanick resigned from the board of directors of the company and sold his shares.

God view and privacy concerns

In November 2014, then U.S. Senator

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...

, Chairman of the

United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law was one of seven subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee. Created at the start of the 112th Congress, it was disbanded with the start of the 116th Con ...

, expressed concerns regarding ride sharing privacy, specifically Uber's "God View", whereby the whereabouts of specific customers, including journalists and politicians, are able to be tracked by Uber insiders. In December 2014, in response to Franken, Uber implemented restrictions on that function. In 2012, an Uber employee tracked the frequency of probable

one-night stand A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single ...

s in six U.S. cities by day and neighborhood, by correlating late-night and next-day trips. The blog posting coined the term "ride of glory" for the Uber equivalent of a walk of shame.

Delayed disclosure of data breaches

On February 27, 2015, Uber admitted that it had suffered a data breach more than nine months prior. Names and license plate information from approximately 50,000 drivers were inadvertently disclosed. Uber discovered this leak in September 2014, but waited more than five months to notify the affected individuals. An announcement in November 2017 revealed that in 2016, a separate data breach had disclosed the personal information of 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers. This data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and drivers' license information. Hackers used employees' usernames and passwords that had been compromised in previous breaches (a "

credential stuffing Credential stuffing is a type of cyberattack in which the attacker collects stolen account credentials, typically consisting of lists of usernames and/or email addresses and the corresponding passwords (often from a data breach), and then uses t ...

" method) to gain access to a private

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

repository used by Uber's developers. The hackers located credentials for the company's

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide d ...

datastore in the repository files, and were able to obtain access to the account records of users and drivers, as well as other data contained in over 100

Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...

buckets. Uber paid a $100,000 ransom to the hackers on the promise they would delete the stolen data. Uber was subsequently criticized for concealing this data breach. Khosrowshahi publicly apologized. In September 2018, in the largest multi-state settlement of a data breach, Uber paid $148 million to the Federal Trade Commission, admitted that its claim that internal access to consumers' personal information was closely monitored on an ongoing basis was false, and stated that it had failed to live up to its promise to provide reasonable security for consumer data. Also in November 2018, Uber's British divisions were fined £385,000 (reduced to £308,000) by the

Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independe ...

. In 2020, the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

announced criminal charges against former Chief Security Officer

Joe Sullivan Michael Joseph O'Sullivan (November 4, 1906 – October 13, 1971) was an American jazz pianist. Sullivan was the ninth child of Irish immigrant parents. He studied classical piano for 12 years and at age 17, he began to play popular music in si ...

for

obstruction of justice Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...

. The criminal complaint said Sullivan arranged, with Kalanick's knowledge, to pay a ransom for the 2016 breach as a "bug bounty" to conceal its true nature, and for the hackers to falsify non-disclosure agreements to say they had not obtained any data.

Use of offshore companies to minimize tax liability

In November 2017, the

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...

, a set of confidential

electronic document An electronic document is any electronic media content (other than computer programs or system files) that is intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output. Originally, any computer data were considered as something inter ...

s relating to

offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...

, revealed that Uber is one of many corporations that used an

offshore company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pr ...

to minimize taxes.

Discrimination against a blind customer

In April 2021, an arbitrator ruled against Uber in a case involving Lisa Irving, a blind American customer with a guide dog who was denied rides on 14 separate occasions. Uber was ordered to pay

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.1 million, reflecting $324,000 in damages and more than $800,000 in attorney fees and court costs.

Court of Amsterdam case on 'robo-firings'

In April 2021, the court of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

ruled that Uber has to reinstate and pay compensation to six drivers that were allegedly automatically terminated solely due to algorithms, which is in violation of Article 22 of

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in parti ...

, which relates to automated decisions causing "legal or significant impact". Uber challenged the ruling, claiming it was not aware of the case and that the judgement was brought by default without the company ever being notified; however, the decision was upheld.

Racial shortcomings of facial recognition system

In October 2021, Uber was sued in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

over allegations that its

facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and ...

is not able to effectively identify people with darker skin and has precluded some people from using the platform, thereby discriminating against people of color.

Discrimination against drivers of color

In October 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all non-White drivers, alleging there was racial discrimination in how it uses passengers’ reviews to evaluate drivers. Driver evaluation relies on Uber's star rating system, which the lawsuit says disproportionately leads to the firing of people who are not white or who speak with accents. The case argues that "Uber’s reliance on customer ratings to determine driver termination constitutes race discrimination, as it is widely recognized that customer evaluations of workers are frequently racially biased." The lawsuit was dismissed in August 2021 due to lack of evidence to prove that the rating system has a racially disparate impact and that Uber intentionally discriminated against the lead plaintiff. However, the judge acknowledged the plausibility of the case and granted permission to file a new complaint.

2022 leak documenting misdeeds

The Uber Files are a leaked database of

's activities in about 40 countries from 2013 to 2017 leaked by former senior executive Mark MacGann, who admits being "partly responsible", and published by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' on 10 July 2022, which shared the database of more than 124,000 files with the

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...

(ICIJ) and 42 other media outlets. They included e-mails,

iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Core features of iMessage, available on all supported platforms, in ...

s and

WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows use ...

messages sent between its senior leadership, as well as memos, presentations and other internal documents. The documents revealed attempts to

lobby Lobby may refer to: * Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building * Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians :* Lobbying in the United States, specific to the United States * Lobby (food), a thick stew ...

powerful figures including

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, German chancellor Olaf Scholz during his mayorship in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and U.S president Joe Biden during his vice presidency, along with re-elected French president Emmanuel Macron secretly aiding Uber lobbying in France during his cabinet membership on the French government. The files also document the use of tools such as "greyball", used to mislead local police, and a

kill switch A kill switch, also known as an emergency stop (E-stop), emergency off (EMO) and as an emergency power off (EPO), is a safety mechanism used to shut off machinery in an emergency, when it cannot be shut down in the usual manner. Unlike a normal ...

deployed during police raids to conceal data. Former Uber CEO

dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry, saying "I think it's worth it, violence guarantees success".

Lobbying

Uber executives met with multiple heads of state, often by-passing the mayors and transport authorities who were supposed to regulate them. These included French president Emmanuel Macron, U.S president Joe Biden, Irish prime minister

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...

, Israeli prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

, UK prime minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

and former UK chancellor

. Texts between Macron and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick suggest that Macron might have secretly helped Uber expand in France when he was economy minister, with Macron even telling the company that he had brokered a secret deal with its opponents in the French cabinet. When the French police banned one of Uber's services in Marseille, Macron was reported to have told Mark MacGann, Uber's chief lobbyist in Europe, that he would look into the issue personally. The ban was revoked two days later. George Osborne, then UK chancellor, was described as "a strong advocate" who "liked to believe that he's responsible for the positive TfL consultation outcome" ( Transport for London's decision to drop plans to tighten regulation). Neelie Kroes, former EU digital chief, was accused of secretly helping Uber by lobbying Dutch politicians, including prime minister

Mark Rutte Mark Rutte (; born 14 February 1967) is a Dutch politician who has served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2010 and Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) since 2006. After a business career working for Unileve ...

, during her 18-month "cooling-off period" after leaving the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

. While she denied any wrongdoing, an Uber lobbyist told colleagues that her relationship was "highly confidential and should not be discussed outside this group”. Another message said that "her name should never figure on a document whether internal or external". At the same time, her request to formally work for Uber was denied by European Commission president

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...

. Uber executives also criticised leaders who pushed back against their lobbyists, calling Olaf Scholz (then mayor of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

) "a real comedian" for insisting on drivers getting a minimum wage.

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

, former prime minister of France, was privately referred to as "enemy #1" and as a "strong-minded" opponent. Kalanick also criticised Joe Biden, then vice-president of the US, for being late for a meeting. The leaked documents showed that Uber launched a charm offensive targeting leading media barons in Europe and India in order to secure more favorable treatment from their governments. It targeted the owners of publications such as the UK's '' Daily Mail'', France's '' Les Echos'', Italy's ''

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

'' and ''

L'Espresso ''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is '' Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media. History and profile One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ' ...

'', Germany's ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...

'' and '' Bild'', and ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

''. According to ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'',

hired

Avisa Partners Avisa Partners is a French firm involved in lobbying, cybersecurity and copyright, competitive intelligence, and online influence. It was created in 2010 and evolved from predecessors including iStrat and a 2018 merger between ''Demeter'', ''Lex ...

, known at the time as ''iStrat'', to manipulate public debate in favour of Uber. The leaked documents show that iStrat published 19 fake articles on 13 websites, including '' Challenges'', '' Les Echos'', ' and ''

Mediapart ''Mediapart'' is an independent French investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, former editor-in-chief of ''Le Monde''. ''Mediapart'' is published in French, English and Spanish. ''Mediapart's'' income is solely derived ...

'', during November and December 2014, while a legal case concerning ''UberPop'' was being considered by the

Tribunal de commerce de Paris The Tribunal de commerce de Paris ("Paris commercial court ouse), until 1968 Tribunal de commerce de la Seine, refers both to the tribunal de commerce of Paris, a commercial court, and to the building that hosts it on the Île de la Cité in Par ...

Kill switch

When Uber offices were raided by police or regulatory agencies, a "kill switch" was used to cut access to the data systems. This technique was used in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania. E-mails from Kalanick and Europe legal director Zac de Kievit asking IT staff to kill access to computers were reported by ''The Guardian''. For example, it was reported that when the French competition regulator, the DGCCRF, raided Uber's offices in Paris, de Kievit asked an engineer in Denmark to "please kill access now". Similar procedures were used in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

to prevent police accessing evidence. In the Netherlands, de Kievit was taken into custody and fined EUR750 for "non-compliance with an official order". The company claims the kill switches were not intended to obstruct justice, but rather to protect IP, customer privacy, and due process. It further claimed no data was permanently deleted, and was available for authorities to obtain later.

Greyball

Through the use of a tool named Greyball, Uber was capable of targeting selected individuals, for example local police, with a fake version of the app that displayed fake cars that would never arrive if contacted. This was developed with the intention of evading the law where the company's practices had been deemed illegal. Greyball was deployed in countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Denmark, with the knowledge of senior management such as Kalanick and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty. Uber said that it stopped using the app in 2017.

Taxation

London-based executive Fraser Robinson was asked to move to Amsterdam to persuade UK tax collectors that the company was not partly managed in the UK. (Under UK law, being partly managed in the UK, for example by having senior executives in London, would make a company taxable in the UK.) He refused to move, possibly for family reasons, and stepped down.

Passenger safety

On 5 December 2014, a passenger was assaulted in an Uber cab by its driver in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

. Following this, Uber was temporarily withdrawn and then forced to manage operations through an Indian subsidiary. Uber also ran into disputes with the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

, the Income Tax department and consumer courts. Following this, a 'kill switch' was used to prevent Indian authorities accessing evidence. Uber Manager Rob van der Woude described the system in an e-mail - "what we did in India is have the city team be as cooperative as possible and have

ber ''Ziziphus mauritiana'', also known as Indian jujube, Indian plum, Chinese date, Chinese apple, ber, and dunks is a tropical fruit tree species belonging to the family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused with the closely related jujube, Chinese j ...

BV take the heat. E.g. Whenever the local team was called to provide the information, we shut them down from the system making it practically impossible for them to give out any info despite their willingness to do so. At the same time we kept directing the authorities to talk to

BV representatives instead." In another mail, Allen Penn, Uber's Asia head, told employees "we will generally stall, be unresponsive, and often say no to what they want. This is how we operate and it’s nearly always the best". The ''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

'' also found that in most Uber cabs, safety features mandated by the Delhi Government, such as a panic button, were not present or did not work.

Employee safety

In one exchange, Kalanick was quoted as saying that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France was "worth it", despite the risk of violence from angry taxi drivers. Warned that "extreme right thugs" had infiltrated the protest and were "spoiling for a fight", he was quoted as saying that "violence guarantee success". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reported that the documents, together with interviews with Uber drivers, showed that Uber knowingly created working conditions that resulted in its drivers barely scraping by, and created a system that rewarded drivers for taking routes and schedules that put them at risk of harm in violence-plagued areas.

Reactions

Jill Hazelbaker, Uber's senior vice-president of public affairs, issued a statement: "We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values. Instead, we ask the public to judge us by what we've done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come." Travis Kalanick's spokesperson said that Kalanick "never authorised any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country" and that he "never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety". When questioned by a journalist from ''

'' about his meetings with Uber officials between 2014 and 2016, Macron said he was "proud" to have supported the company, and that he would "do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow". French opposition politicians across the political spectrum, as well as the leader of the trade union CGT, called for a parliamentary inquiry into Macron's links to Uber.

Fabien Roussel Fabien Roussel (; born 16 April 1969) is a French politician who has served as national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) since 2018. He was elected to represent the 20th constituency of the Nord department in the National Assembl ...

of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

described the revelations as "devastating" and "Against all our rules, all our social laws and against workers' rights." The

European Trade Union Confederation The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and ...

called for the suspension of parliamentary access passes for Uber staff, claiming that Uber was "lobbying hard to try and water down EU legislation on the rights of platform workers". The Italian news agency Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) reported that taxi drivers across Italy stopped their vehicles in protest at the revelations on 12 July.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62057321 , title=Uber Files: Massive leak reveals how top politicians secretly helped Uber , trans-title= , publisher=

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, date=2022-07-10 , access-date=2022-07-10 , website=bbc.com , author= , quote=The Uber Files are a trove of more than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning 2013 to 2017. {{cite web, url=https://www.eldebate.com/internacional/20220711/larga-mano-putin-papeles-uber-wikileaks.html , title=La larga mano de Putin en los papeles de Uber , trans-title=Putin's long hand in Uber's papers , publisher= , date=2022-07-11 , access-date=2022-07-11 , website=eldebate.com , language=es , author=Carmen de Carlos , quote=En los papeles de Uber también aparecen salpicados el por entonces primer ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, la priera ministra irlandesa Enda Kenny y el ex presidente de estonia, Toomas hendrik. [Also implicated in the Uber papers are then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik.] {{Cite news , title=Uber broke laws, duped police and built secret lobbying operation, leak reveals , last1=Davies , first1=Harry , last2=Goodley , first2=Simon , last3=Lawrence , first3=Felicity , last4=Lewis , first4=Paul , last5=O'Carroll , first5=Lisa , newspaper=

, date=10 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign {{Cite news , title=What are the Uber files? A guide to cab-hailing firm's ruthless expansion tactics , newspaper=

, date=10 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/what-are-the-uber-files-guide , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title=Star executive quit Uber as it faced pressure over UK tax structure , last1= Goodley , first1= Simon , newspaper=

, date=10 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/11/star-executive-quit-uber-faced-pressure-uk-tax-structure , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title=Uber bosses told staff to use 'kill switch' during raids to stop police seeing data , last1= Davies , first1= Rob , last2= Goodley , first2= Simon, newspaper=

, date=11 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-bosses-told-staff-use-kill-switch-raids-stop-police-seeing-data , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title=Emmanuel Macron secretly aided Uber lobbying drive in France, leak reveals , last1= Henley , first1= Jon , last2= Davies , first2= Harry , newspaper=

, date=11 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/emmanuel-macron-secretly-aided-uber-lobbying-drive-france-leak-reveals , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title= Former EU digital chief secretly helped Uber lobby Dutch PM, leak suggests , last1= Goodley , first1= Simon , last2= Rankin , first2= Jennifer , newspaper=

, date=10 July 2022 , url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/former-eu-digital-chief-neelie-kroes-secretly-helped-uber-lobby-dutch-pm-leak-suggests , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title= Uber's crisis SOP: hit 'kill switch' meaning shut down to deny info , last1= Sarin , first1= Ritu , newspaper=

, date=11 July 2022 , url= https://indianexpress.com/article/express-exclusive/uber-kill-switch-sop-india-8021187/ , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{Cite news , title= Revealed: How Uber took systems for a ride, used its tech to drive past law , last1= Sarin , first1= Ritu , last2= Yadav , first2= Shyamlal , last3= Mohan , first3= Anand , newspaper=

, date=11 July 2022 , url= https://indianexpress.com/article/express-exclusive/uber-files-investigation-illegal-ride-app-india-rape-8021194/ , access-date = 11 July 2022 {{cite news , url=https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/07/10/how-uber-lobbied-the-worlds-political-elite-to-try-and-get-its-way/ , title=How Uber lobbied the world's political elite to try and get its way {{! Leaked documents reveal how the San Francisco-based ride-sharing pioneer lobbied thousands of politicians and officials around the world in its mission to expand its controversial business model , newspaper=

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

, date=2022-07-10 , access-date=2022-07-10 {{cite news , last1=Untersinger , first1=Martin , language = fr , title=« Uber Files » : ces faux articles sur des sites de presse commandés par Uber , trans-title ='Uber Files': fake articles on news sites created by Uber , date=2022-07-12 , newspaper=

, url=https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2022/07/12/uber-files-ces-faux-articles-sur-des-sites-de-presse-commandes-par-uber_6134455_4408996.html , url-access=subscription , access-date= 2022-07-31 , archive-url=https://archive.today/tT55W , archive-date= 2022-07-13 , url-status=live

External links

Uber Files
at the

ICIJ The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...

Uber