New Delhi: Uber resorted to dubious and potentially illegal tactics and used technology to bypass regulators to fuel an aggressive global expansion that began about a decade ago transforming the company from a shaky Silicon Valley start-up into a $44-billion global transportation giant, according to a joint investigation by global media organisations into leaked confidential files from the ride-sharing company.
Dubbed the “Uber Files”, the 1,24,000 internal documents were first obtained by UK daily The Guardian, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a global consortium of news organisations in 30 countries, including The Indian Express in India, The Washington Post and BBC.
“Violence guarantee(s) success,” Uber co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick messaged other company leaders to counter demonstrations in Paris in 2016 against Uber’s arrival in the market, according to the probe into the leaked documents, the AFP reported.
Kalanick was forced to resign in 2017 following accusations of brutal management practices and several episodes of sexual and psychological harassment at the company, the AFP report said.
Uber’s rapid expansion riled the taxi industry by subsidising drivers and offering discounted fares and was “often without seeking licenses to operate as a taxi and livery service,” the report said, quoting The Washington Post.
According to The Guardian, Uber has adopted similar tactics in European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
India was one of Uber’s fastest growing markets since it launched services in the country in 2013. Today, an estimated 6 lakh drivers in over 100 cities of the country work for Uber.
“We’ve definitely made a splash in our first year in India…We will likely have both local and national issues in almost every city in India…That’s life running a business at Uber,” its then Asia head Allen Penn wrote to the India team in August 2014, summing up Uber’s strategy, according to a report in The Indian Express.
The probe into the internal files detail “Uber’s run-ins with a host of Indian regulatory authorities, including GST and Income Tax Departments as well as Consumer Forums, the Reserve Bank of India and the Service Tax Department”, The Indian Express report said.
In December 2014, following the rape of a 25-year-old passenger in New Delhi in an Uber car by its driver, top executives blamed the “flawed” licensing systems in India for letting the criminal record of the accused driver slip through, The Indian Express report said.
‘Kill switch’
According to the investigation, Uber tried to evade regulatory probes by using technology.
In one instance, the probe found that Kalanick used a “kill switch” to remotely cut off access of devices in an Amsterdam office to Uber’s internal systems during a raid by authorities, the AFP report said.
“Please hit the kill switch ASAP,” he wrote in an email to an employee, the report said. “Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).”
Kalanick spokesperson Devon Spurgeon, however, said the former chief executive “never authorised any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country.”
Kalanick “did not create, direct or oversee these systems set up by legal and compliance departments and has never been charged in any jurisdiction for obstruction of justice or any related offense,” she said.
Uber, however, placed the blame on previously publicised “mistakes” made by the leadership under Kalanick.
“We’ve moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration, demonstrating a willingness to come to the table and find common ground with former opponents, including labour unions and taxi companies,” it said, noting that Dara Khosrowshahi “was tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates.”
