Tens of thousands of leaked confidential files have revealed a history of lobbying, lawbreaking, and exploiting violence against drivers. The record shows a treasure trove of unlawful and sketchy altitudes from Uber.
The files were initially shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The Guardian. They showed that Uber has knowingly broken laws and has gone to some lengths to avoid justice.
The leak reveals that the company also secretly lobbied governments, got aid from prominent politicians, and exploited violence against drivers to increase its business.
The leak involves over 124,000 documents spanning 5 years from 2013 to 2017. It also covers Uber’s activities in 40 countries when Uber was run by co-founder Travis Kalanick, who uses an aggressive method to bring Uber into cities globally even when doing so breaks taxi regulations and local laws.
The Uber leak documents have 83,000 emails and other 1,000 files comprising conversations. The document reveals for the first time the company’s $90 million-a-year lobbying and public relations campaigns to actualize the support of global leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron to disrupt the taxi sector of Europe.
Meanwhile, Jill Hazelbaker, the Uber spokesperson has acknowledged several mistakes the company made under the management of Kalanick, making his replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, to be tasked with transforming all aspects of Uber’s operation.
The company equally installed the compliance and controls needed to run as a public firm.
According to Jill Hazelbaker, “We have not and will not make excuses for past behavior that is 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.”
In the past 5 years, Uber has spent millions on marketing and lobbying campaigns so it could treat its drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.
The ride service firm has also shot down a shareholder proposal to achieve transparency over Uber’s lobbying attempts.
Uber attacks continue
Contrary to Hazelbaker’s claims that Uber has reformed since 2017 after Kalanick’s resignation, the company has continued to run its service against local laws and taxi regulations and still stipulates that drivers must be treated as staff.
In other words, despite recorded violent attacks and protests against drivers since 2017, Uber has continued to run in cities and countries where town regulators say drivers should have a license to run its taxi service.