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Uber expanded committing illegalities while lobbying politicians for help

Uber used aggressive methodsand in many cases apparently illegal, during its global expansion stage, between 2013 and 2017. The company went at it very aggressively, not infrequently coming to a market and then asking what practices were correct in that market. Many of these practices, and others in which violence against drivers was even used to achieve success, have come to light after a leak of messages and internal company files to various media, such as El País, Le Monde, The Guardian, the BBC or the Washington Post, as well as the International Consortium of investigative journalists.

According to the BBC, the leaked files include more than 124,000 records, among which are 83,000 emails and a thousand other files with conversations produced between 2013 and 2017, when Travis Kalanick was its CEO and President. They cover the company’s business in more than 40 countries.

In those years, Uber «broke laws, misled police, exploited violence against drivers, and secretly lobbied governments«. In addition, he actively sought the help of various politicians active in Europe. Among them, that of current President of France, Emmanuel Macron, when he was Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs. Specifically, Macron supported Kalanick during the anti-Uber taxi demonstrations in France in 2015, which brought together thousands of taxi drivers.

Macron, who saw Uber as a source of employment for France, came to meet with company executives and offer them very strong support. Macron had a very close relationship with Kalanick, and they got to meet four times in person: In Paris and at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This last meeting was public. Not so in Paris.

In addition, the then CEO of the company did not give importance to the concern of the company’s directors about sending Uber drivers to the protests in France, something that put them in danger of even being attacked by taxi drivers. Kalanick said verbatim that he believed it was worth doing because “violence guarantees success«. Kalanick left the company in 2017 after various scandals. He was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi, the previous CEO of Expedia, who began his time at the helm of Uber by apologizing for the company’s conduct and trying to reform its corporate culture, described as toxic at best.

Not only with Macron: also with Kroes and Scholz

The leaks also make clear Uber’s efforts to lobby public officials and government officials during its expansion. Between them with the then Vice President of the United States (and now President) Joe Bidenwith the German Chancellor Olaf Scholzwho was then the Mayor of Hamburg, and with the Former European Union Digital Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who was negotiating to join Uber before the end of his term, and who subsequently secretly lobbied on Uber’s behalf, in what may be a possible breach of the European Union’s ethical rules. The company’s lobbying at the time included attempts to convince various politicians to change labor-related laws to benefit Uber.

Uber also had a “panic button”, which, when pressed, meant that if the police or other security forces went to the company’s offices to track the company’s computers, they could not access sensitive company data, since in Uber they thought that if they were allowed to review this data, their growth would be harmed. The leaked files prove its existence, and confirm that Kalanick himself activated the system on at least one occasion, thanks to an email that reads “Please press the panic button as soon as you can. Access has to be turned off in Ams (Amsterdam).”

This button was also used in Canada, Belgium, India, Romania and Hungary, and at least three times in France. Of course, Uber says it hasn’t had this kind of button since Khosrowshahi succeeded Kalanick in 2017. And a Kalanick spokesperson says he never authorized programs and actions that obstruct justice in any country, and that any accusation in this sense is false. He has also mentioned that Uber «used tools that protect the intellectual property and privacy of its clients«. Also that “these safe landing protocols do not erase any data or information and have been approved by Uber’s legal and regulatory departments«. This is one of the facts that Kalanick denies in his statement.

Uber also acted in Spain

Among the leaked documentation there are also documents that affect the operation of the company in Barcelona and Madrid. Here, according to El País, Uber took advantage of the rivalry between the Spanish government and the Catalan regional to try to get changes in the laws that benefited them. It specifically sought to liberalize the sector or improve the regulation of VTCs. In 2014, Uber established several contacts and organized several meetings to defend the company’s entry into both cities with arguments focused on the new urban mobility or the collaborative economy.

In one of the leaked documents, Uber pointed out that in Spain they had to create confrontation between Catalonia and the central government, the PP, and which was in favor of liberalizing the sector. The company’s intention was to take advantage of their hostilities so that they would compete to see who would regulate Uber’s activity first. They also aimed to convince the Mossos d’Esquadra not to fine Uber drivers and to take action against taxi drivers who become violent.

In Catalonia they wanted to approach Felip Puig, from CIU, because he was close to Artur Mas. In Madrid, to Ignacio González, then President of the Community and considered as part of the most liberal wing of the PP. One day before the service came into operation in Madrid, Borja Carabante, Deputy Minister of Transport of the CommunityY Federico Jiménez de Parga, its Transport Directorreceived emails that assured that Uber worked well in Barcelona, ​​once again biting Madrid.

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