Uber agrees to pay 'massive compensation' to taxi drivers
A class-action lawsuit filed by taxi drivers against Uber in Australia has concluded. Accordingly, Uber has agreed to pay 278 million Australian dollars (178 million US dollars) to taxi drivers.
12punto
In Australia, taxi operators and drivers filed a lawsuit against Uber, which provides taxi services via a mobile phone application.
The taxi drivers stated that the application did not comply with existing regulations and that they had lost income.
In the lawsuit filed in 2019 in the state of Victoria on behalf of more than 8 thousand taxi drivers and rental vehicle owners, Uber was accused of violating the license rules that taxis and rental vehicles are required to have, and it was alleged that Uber employed unlicensed vehicles and unauthorized drivers in its first years of operation in the country.
According to a report by BBC Turkish; the law firm Maurice Blackburn, which represented the taxi drivers, announced that the settlement is the 5th largest settlement reached in a class-action lawsuit in the country's history.
Michael Donelly, the lead lawyer for the team representing the taxi drivers, said that for 5 years, Uber had "fought tooth and nail" to avoid paying compensation, but that in parallel with the legal process, the Australian public had also turned its back on Uber.
The Uber company stated that it would "not be appropriate" to comment on the size of the settlement before it is officially signed in court.
The company stated, "When Uber started providing services 10 years ago, regulations for this service did not exist in Australia or anywhere else in the world. Today, the situation is different. Uber is currently subject to regulations in every state in Australia, and governments also see us as an important part of transportation diversity."
The US-based Uber company is valued at 157 billion dollars.