Uber to pay $272m compensation in settlement with Australian taxi drivers

Uber has agreed to pay over $272 million to taxi and hire-car drivers who suffered losses as a result of the ridesharing company’s “aggressive” entry into the Australian market.

Judge Lisa Nichols canceled a class action lawsuit against Uber that was scheduled to go to trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Monday after the ride-sharing behemoth accepted the $271.8 million settlement.

Following what Maurice Blackburn Lawyers described as five “grueling” years since it began the legal struggle on behalf of more than 8,000 taxi and hire-car owners and drivers, it was the fifth-largest class-action settlement in Australia’s history.

A 'taxi' sign near an Uber car

Uber’s rapid entry into the market cost drivers and car owners money and reduced the value of their licenses, and the corporation made every effort to refuse them reimbursement, according to Michael Donelly, principle counsel at Maurice Blackburn.

The Uber files: the company lobbied governments to amend the law after realizing it had debuted illegally in Australia.
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Before the settlement is finally paid out, the Supreme Court must legally approve it.

Donelly remarked outside of court on Monday, “To our group members in the Australian taxi and hire-car industry, your story is an Australian story.”

“You manage the family business, which has been passed down from parents to children. For successive generations of Australian immigrants to this nation trying to establish an economic base, you have served as their landing place.

“They said that when Uber came to town, the game was up and it was your turn to be disrupted in the new economy, but you knew what was right and wrong, what was legal and what wasn’t, and you stood up for yourselves.”

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Attorneys contended that Uber X entered the Australian market with the goal of harming local drivers of taxis and hire cars.

Additionally, attorneys claimed that the firm misled regulators, geoblocked authorities, and engaged in a “conspiracy by unlawful means” involving unregistered automobiles driven by unaccredited drivers.

The settlement agreement, according to lead plaintiff Nick Andrianakis, a former long-time taxi driver, is a victory for the industry, which Uber’s activities “decimated.”

The class action concerns complaints from taxi and hire-car drivers, which an Uber representative referred to as “legacy issues.”

Regulations for ridesharing were nonexistent worldwide when the company was founded over ten years ago.

According to an Uber representative, the company is now regulated in every Australian state and territory, and the government acknowledges its significance in the transportation mix.

“Ridesharing’s growth has boosted Australia’s point-to-point transport sector overall, offering hundreds of thousands of Australian workers new income opportunities in addition to more choices and better experiences for customers,” he said.

“Uber has made major contributions to numerous state-level taxi compensation programs since 2018, and with today’s proposed settlement, we firmly put these legacy issues in the past.

“Our goal will remain to provide safe, cost-effective, and dependable transportation options for the millions of Australians who use Uber to get from point A to point B.”

According to Donelly, the class action was successful when other lawsuits against state governments in Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia had been unsuccessful.

In April, the Supreme Court is anticipated to consider an application for approval of the class action settlement.

Taxi Apps Pty Ltd is the plaintiff in another non-class action proceeding, which is still pending and scheduled for trial in the upcoming weeks.

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