The AchieVer Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 Uber faces class action from over 6,000 taxi and hire car drivers It will cover drivers, operators, and licence owners across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. A class action lawsuit has been filed against Uber, on behalf of thousands of Australian taxi and hire car drivers, for allegedly operating illegally which provided the company with an unfair competitive advantage. The lawsuit was filed on Friday morning at the Victorian Supreme Court by law firm Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, and will cover more than 6,000 drivers, operators, and licence owners across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, making it one of the biggest class actions in Australian history. The claimants allege Uber knew that its operations in Australia were illegal as its drivers did not have the proper licences or accreditations. Uber also allegedly adopted a program to avoid the use of licences and accreditation, as well as "a policy to operate in any market where the regulator had tacitly approved doing so by failing to take direct enforcement action". "Make no mistake, this will be a landmark case regarding the alleged illegal operations of Uber in Australia and the devastating impact that has had on the lives of hard-working and law-abiding citizens here," Maurice Blackburn head of class actions Andrew Watson said. The class action's lead plaintiff is Nick Andrianakis, a taxi driver, operator, and licence owner from Brunswick, Victoria. The class action will seek compensation for the loss of driver income for Uber's conduct between April 1, 2014, and July 31, 2017, which covers when Uber first entered the market to when the taxi industry was deregulated. There will be no out-of-pocket costs or liability risks for the claimants, Maurice Blackburn senior associate Elizabeth O'Shea said, with the lawsuit to be funded by litigation funder Harbour. Since Uber entered the Australian market, state governments around the country have made various attempts to address the activity of the world's largest ride-hailing company. The Western Australian and Queenslandgovernments regulated Uber in 2016, requiring Uber drivers to have special licences while also reducing the cost of fees paid by taxi drivers. In NSW, the state government set up a AU$1 levy on all taxi and ride-sharing trips, which aimed to contribute AU$100 million to pay for a compensation scheme. Meanwhile, in Victoria, Uber received the green light to operate in August 2017, after a decisionpassed by a Victorian County Court judge in favour of a Melbourne Uber driver in early 2016 effectively deemed the service as legal. The lawsuit follows Uber's announcement to go public in April, with the IPO set to happen sometime this month. The IPO is expected to sell about $10 billion worth of stock, which would make it one of the largest US tech IPOs ever, coming in at an anticipated $100 billion to $120 billion. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Uber, on behalf of thousands of Australian taxi and hire car drivers, for allegedly operating illegally which provided the company with an unfair competitive advantage. The lawsuit was filed on Friday morning at the Victorian Supreme Court by law firm Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, and will cover more than 6,000 drivers, operators, and licence owners across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, making it one of the biggest class actions in Australian history. The claimants allege Uber knew that its operations in Australia were illegal as its drivers did not have the proper licences or accreditations. Uber also allegedly adopted a program to avoid the use of licences and accreditation, as well as "a policy to operate in any market where the regulator had tacitly approved doing so by failing to take direct enforcement action". "Make no mistake, this will be a landmark case regarding the alleged illegal operations of Uber in Australia and the devastating impact that has had on the lives of hard-working and law-abiding citizens here," Maurice Blackburn head of class actions Andrew Watson said. The class action's lead plaintiff is Nick Andrianakis, a taxi driver, operator, and licence owner from Brunswick, Victoria. The class action will seek compensation for the loss of driver income for Uber's conduct between April 1, 2014, and July 31, 2017, which covers when Uber first entered the market to when the taxi industry was deregulated. There will be no out-of-pocket costs or liability risks for the claimants, Maurice Blackburn senior associate Elizabeth O'Shea said, with the lawsuit to be funded by litigation funder Harbour. Since Uber entered the Australian market, state governments around the country have made various attempts to address the activity of the world's largest ride-hailing company. The Western Australian and Queenslandgovernments regulated Uber in 2016, requiring Uber drivers to have special licences while also reducing the cost of fees paid by taxi drivers. In NSW, the state government set up a AU$1 levy on all taxi and ride-sharing trips, which aimed to contribute AU$100 million to pay for a compensation scheme. Meanwhile, in Victoria, Uber received the green light to operate in August 2017, after a decisionpassed by a Victorian County Court judge in favour of a Melbourne Uber driver in early 2016 effectively deemed the service as legal. The lawsuit follows Uber's announcement to go public in April, with the IPO set to happen sometime this month. The IPO is expected to sell about $10 billion worth of stock, which would make it one of the largest US tech IPOs ever, coming in at an anticipated $100 billion to $120 billion. Source
mp68terr Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 1 hour ago, The AchieVer said: A class action lawsuit has been filed against Uber, on behalf of thousands of Australian taxi and hire car drivers, for allegedly operating illegally... 1 hour ago, The AchieVer said: Uber received the green light to operate in August 2017, after a decision passed by a Victorian County Court judge in favour of a Melbourne Uber driver in early 2016 effectively deemed the service as legal. Difficult for outsiders to follow this story... Readers might need more official sources, than zdnet snapshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The AchieVer Posted May 3, 2019 Author Share Posted May 3, 2019 2 minutes ago, mp68terr said: Difficult for outsiders to follow this story... Readers might need more official sources, than zdnet snapshots. The class action will seek compensation for the loss of driver income for Uber's conduct between April 1, 2014, and July 31, 2017, which covers when Uber first entered the market to when the taxi industry was deregulated. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp68terr Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 Uber's system is indeed not good for official taxi drivers and the taxi industry as a whole, it competes with a monopolistic system... On the other hand the taxi industry has to evolve and could 1. take care first of 'bad' taxi drivers who cheat tourists (saw that in several Asian as well as European countries) and 2. stop interfering with public transportation services (like at night) for its own benefit. Don't know in Australia 😉 Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luisam Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 The main problem with UBER is that it is not operating according to its "orignal" idea. It was "thought" to be a universal application used by anyone who has a car and wants to help the rest of the humanity sharing it. So, this UBER app user A needs to go from X to Y. He opens his app and he is found by UBER user B, who has no car and wants to go from X! to Y1; X1 happens to be near to X, Y1 near to Y. B contacts A, they agree to meet somewhere near X! site and for a fee calculated by the app, A takes B to site Y1, then continues to Y. That's all folks! Now, what's the reality? The application is managed by a transnational corporation which gets a percentage from A's fee. User A is not an accidental user; he travels only expecting to get a client, drops him and continues looking for another user. Thus, he is giving an informal taxi service, competing with legitimate taxi drivers and of course, organized taxi drivers feel disadvantaged. Of course it's not simple as that, because on the other hand, in many cases users get a better option using UBER! Or at least, an option, to check, how much it should cost using UBER and how much should charge a regular taxi. It's COMPETITION. Should the solution be to get back to the original idea, forget the "corporation" and use this app, as it is? Might this be possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.