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Uber Files

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Head office of Uber, San Francisco

The Uber Files are a leaked database of Uber's activities in about 40 countries from 2013 to 2017 leaked by former senior executive Mark MacGann, who admits being "partly responsible",[1] and published by The Guardian on 10 July 2022, which shared the database of more than 124,000 files with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 other media outlets.[1][2][3][4] They included e-mails, iMessages and WhatsApp messages sent between its senior leadership, as well as memos, presentations and other internal documents.[5] The documents revealed attempts to lobby powerful figures including George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, German chancellor Olaf Scholz during his mayorship in Hamburg, Germany, and U.S president Joe Biden during his vice presidency, along with re-elected French president Emmanuel Macron secretly aiding Uber lobbying in France during his cabinet membership on the French government, and use of a kill switch during police raids to conceal data. Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France put them at risk of violence from angry opponents in the taxi industry, saying "I think it's worth it, violence guarantees success".[6]

Lobbying

Main article: Lobbying

Uber executives met with multiple heads of state, often by-passing the mayors and transport authorities who were supposed to regulate them. These included French president Emmanuel Macron, U.S president Joe Biden, Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former UK chancellor George Osborne.[6]

Texts between Macron and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick suggest that Macron might have secretly helped Uber expand in France when he was economy minister, with Macron even telling the company that he had brokered a secret deal with its opponents in the French cabinet. When the French police banned one of Uber's services in Marseille, Macron was reported to have told Mark MacGann, Uber’s chief lobbyist in Europe, that he would look into the issue personally. The ban was revoked two days later.[6][7]

George Osborne, then UK chancellor, was described as "a strong advocate" who "liked to believe that he’s responsible for the positive TfL consultation outcome” (Transport for London's decision to drop plans to tighten regulation).[8]

Neelie Kroes, former EU digital chief, was accused of secretly helping Uber by lobbying Dutch politicians, including prime minister Mark Rutte, during her 18-month “cooling-off period” after leaving the European Commission. While she denied doing anything wrong, an Uber lobbyist told colleagues that her relationship was “highly confidential and should not be discussed outside this group”. Another message said that "her name should never figure on a document whether internal or external". At the same time, her request to formally work for Uber was denied by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.[9]

Uber executives also criticised leaders who pushed back against their lobbyists, calling Olaf Scholz (then mayor of Hamburg) "a real comedian" for insisting on drivers getting a minimum wage.[6] Manuel Valls, former prime minister of France, was privately referred to as "enemy #1" and as a “strong-minded” opponent.[7] Kalanick also criticised Joe Biden, then vice-president of the US, for being late for a meeting.[6]

Kill switch

When Uber offices were raided by police or regulatory agencies, a "kill switch" was used to cut access to the data systems.[6] This technique was used in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania. E-mails from Kalanick and Europe legal director Zac de Kievit asking IT staff to kill access to computers were reported by the Guardian. For example, it was reported that when the French competition regulator, the DGCCRF, raided Uber's offices in Paris, de Kievit asked an engineer in Denmark to “please kill access now”. Similar procedures were used in Brussels and Amsterdam to prevent police accessing evidence. In the Netherlands, de Kievit was taken into custody and fined EUR750 for "non-compliance with an official order".[10]

The company claims the kill switches were not intended to obstruct justice, but rather to protect IP, customer privacy, and due process. It further claimed no data was permanently deleted, and was available for authorities to obtain later.[10]

Taxation

London-based executive Fraser Robinson was asked to move to Amsterdam to persuade UK tax collectors that the company was not partly managed in the UK. (Under UK law, being partly managed in the UK, for example by having senior executives in London, would make a company taxable in the UK.) He refused to move, possibly for family reasons, and stepped down.[8]

Passenger safety

On 5 December 2014, a passenger was assaulted in an Uber cab in New Delhi. Following this, Uber was temporarily withdrawn and then forced to manage operations through an Indian subsidiary. Uber also ran into disputes with the Reserve Bank of India, the Income Tax department and consumer courts. Following this, a 'kill switch' was used to prevent Indian authorities accessing evidence. Uber Manager Rob van der Woude described the system in an e-mail - "what we did in India is have the city team be as cooperative as possible and have BV take the heat. E.g. Whenever the local team was called to provide the information, we shut them down from the system making it practically impossible for them to give out any info despite their willingness to do so. At the same time we kept directing the authorities to talk to BV representatives instead." In another mail, Allen Penn, Uber's Asia head, told employees "we will generally stall, be unresponsive, and often say no to what they want. This is how we operate and it’s nearly always the best".[11] The Indian Express also found that in most Uber cabs, safety features mandated by the Delhi Government, such as a panic button, were not present or did not work.[12]

Employee safety

In one exchange, Kalanick was quoted as saying that sending Uber drivers to a protest in France was "worth it", despite the risk of violence from angry taxi drivers. Warned that "extreme right thugs" had infiltrated the protest and were "spoiling for a fight", he was quoted as saying that "violence guarantee[s] success".[6]

Reactions

Jill Hazelbaker, Uber's senior vice-president of public affairs, issued a statement: "We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly 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." Travis Kalanick's spokesperson said that Kalanick "never authorised any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country" and that he "never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety".[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Lewis, Paul; Davies, Harry; O'Carroll, Lisa; Goodley, Simon; Lawrence, Felicity (11 July 2022). "The Uber whistleblower: I'm exposing a system that sold people a lie". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Uber Files: Massive leak reveals how top politicians secretly helped Uber". bbc.com. BBC News. 10 July 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022. The Uber Files are a trove of more than 124,000 records, including 83,000 emails and 1,000 other files involving conversations, spanning 2013 to 2017.
  3. ^ "How Uber lobbied the world's political elite to try and get its way | Leaked documents reveal how the San Francisco-based ride-sharing pioneer lobbied thousands of politicians and officials around the world in its mission to expand its controversial business model". irishtimes.com. The Irish Times. 10 July 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  4. ^ Carmen de Carlos (11 July 2022). "La larga mano de Putin en los papeles de Uber" [Putin's long hand in Uber's papers]. eldebate.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 July 2022. En los papeles de Uber también aparecen salpicados el por entonces primer ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, la priera ministra irlandesa Enda Kenny y el ex presidente de estonia, Toomas hendrik. [Also implicated in the Uber papers are then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik.]
  5. ^ a b Guardian reporter (10 July 2022). "What are the Uber files? A guide to cab-hailing firm's ruthless expansion tactics". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Davies, Harry; Goodley, Simon; Lawrence, Felicity; Lewis, Paul; O'Carroll, Lisa (10 July 2022). "Uber broke laws, duped police and built secret lobbying operation, leak reveals". The Guardian.
  7. ^ a b Henley, Jon; Davies, Harry (11 July 2022). "Emmanuel Macron secretly aided Uber lobbying drive in France, leak reveals". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  8. ^ a b Goodley, Simon (10 July 2022). "Star executive quit Uber as it faced pressure over UK tax structure". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  9. ^ Goodley, Simon; Rankin, Jennifer (10 July 2022). "Former EU digital chief secretly helped Uber lobby Dutch PM, leak suggests". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  10. ^ a b Davies, Rob; Goodley, Simon (11 July 2022). "Uber bosses told staff to use 'kill switch' during raids to stop police seeing data". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  11. ^ Sarin, Ritu (11 July 2022). "Uber's crisis SOP: hit 'kill switch' meaning shut down to deny info". Indian Express. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  12. ^ Sarin, Ritu; Yadav, Shyamlal; Mohan, Anand (11 July 2022). "Revealed: How Uber took systems for a ride, used its tech to drive past law". Indian Express. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
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