The Uber Files, a leak of 124,000 documents from the ride-hailing-turned-transport company, gives an unprecedented look into the machinations of the notorious tech startup. Internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents — leaked to The Guardian and shared to journalists around the world by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — show how the company, led by then CEO Travis Kalanick, broke the law, welcomed violence against its drivers, and used underhanded tactics to stymie regulators and other opponents.
Here are some of the biggest claims revealed so far:
- Uber had direct access to the world’s most powerful people and was able to influence them. Internal communication between Kalanick and other executives shows how the company lobbied figures including French President Emmanuel Macron (then economy minister), US President Joe Biden (then vice president to Barack Obama), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (then mayor of Hamburg), and former UK minister George Osborne (then UK chancellor). These weren’t just courtesy meetings either; documents suggest that these figures advocated for the company after meeting them. Macron, for example, told the company that he had negotiated a secret “deal” with his opponents in cabinet to help the company.
- Uber systematically flouted the law in many of the countries it operated in. Internal emails show top executives acknowledging their “less than legal status” in countries like Turkey, South Africa, Spain, the Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Germany and Russia. The company’s head of communications told another staff member in 2014 that the company was facing issues “because, well, we’re fucking just fucking illegal”.
- The company created a “kill switch” to thwart attempts by police to access their data. Uber had a variety of tactics it used in response to its law-breaking, including a technical method that remotely cut off access to the company’s data systems for hardware. Doing so would stop efforts by regulators to gather evidence (such as what is included in these leaks) on the company’s operations. Internal documents also reveal the extent to which Uber used Greyball, another company tool that would stop accounts associated with the authorities from being able to find drivers.
- Uber leveraged violence for its own ends. During the height of tension between French taxi drivers and Uber drivers in 2016, people were beat up, cars were wrecked and mass protests brought the city to a standstill. Internally, Uber executives saw violence committed against their drivers as a strategic win for them. “I think it’s worth it … Violence guarantee [sic] success,” Kalanick said in a message. When similar acts of harm committed by taxi drivers against Uber drivers happened in dozens of countries, the company capitalised on it by alerting national media to create anti-taxi publicity.
Uber turnover a couple of years ago in in Australia was $800 million. They paid NO TAX, as usual with multinationals. Their drivers are exploited, receive no sick pay or benefits, can be dismissed on a whim, without recourse. I know, I drove with them for a while. Most drivers make around $10 per hour, less running costs, less GST, after Uber commission of close to 30%. The business model is a blatant failure, and it continues to exist by drawdown of investor funds. Ban them or require a less exploitative and tax avoidance model.
Or would a driver -run co-op version work?
In common with all parts of the gig economy, Uber was formed with a view to exploit the most desperate in society for the benefit of a managing few.
The business model is a blatant failure, and it continues to exist by drawdown of investor funds.
Precisely. Uber has continuously lied, misled investors and manipulated the media about its fraudulent business model and prospects. None of that is covered, so far anyway, in the reporting of the leaked documents. For anyone interested there’s a monumental five-year, 29-part, series pubished on the Naked Capitalism website, written by Hubert Horan, a vastly credentialled and experienced transport economist.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/?s=hubert+horan
Just part 29, published Feb 11 this year, is worth a read. If the sheer size of the series is much too daunting, an article which Horan wrote for American Affairs in 2019 more or less summarises it all:
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/05/ubers-path-of-destruction/
Uber represents the pinnacle of neoliberal business organisation: labour input that costs as close to zero as possible, no worker rights, no regulatory obligations or oversight, bugger-all capital investment, no tax … all achieved globally riding (pun intended) on the back of technology infrastructure (ie, the internet) that is substantially funded by its customers and government.
Ah! Bliss!
Also, the huge and completely fraudulent over-valuation of its business prospects and worth, year after year. Go to the American Affairs Journal website and search for Uber’s Path of Destruction (case sensitive) for a great article by Hubert Horan.
Billionaires should be taxed out of business. No one should be able to amass that amount of money.
Will the person who released these files be extradited to the US to face 175 years in prison? If not, why not?
Good one!
Make the moral decision to never use them or anything like them.
Never have and never will. The taxi system had its issues but “disruptors” rarely benefit employees or customers in the long run. Additionally, Taxi Owners paid licence fees to their State Governments, Uber is nothing but a leech.