18-3-2024 (SYDNEY) Uber, the global rideshare giant, has reached a landmark settlement of 272 million Australian dollars ($178 million) to resolve a protracted dispute with Australian taxi and hire car drivers who suffered losses when the company entered the Australian market.
The class action, representing 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers, was scheduled to commence trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday. However, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, the legal representatives of the drivers, announced that the case would be dropped following Uber’s agreement to the financial settlement.
According to Michael Donelly, principal lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, the drivers and car owners faced financial hardships as a result of Uber’s aggressive entry into the market in 2012. He further emphasized that Uber consistently evaded compensating those affected.
“On the courtroom steps and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant,” Donelly stated.
Uber, in a statement, referred to the complaints from the taxi industry as “legacy issues.” The company highlighted that rideshare regulations did not exist anywhere in the world when it launched over a decade ago. The statement acknowledged the positive impact of ridesharing on Australia’s overall point-to-point transport industry, providing consumers with greater choice, improved experiences, and new earning opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers.
The settlement reached between Uber and the drivers marks the resolution of long-standing legal battles. Uber also noted its previous contributions to state-level taxi compensation schemes since 2018 and considered the proposed settlement as a way to put these “legacy issues” behind them.
This settlement stands as the fifth-largest class action settlement in the history of Australia and arrives five years after the initiation of the legal action.
