Uber broke laws, cheated and lobbied to penetrate cities around the world

A journalistic investigation carried out from thousands of internal files of Uber have brought to light the ethically questionable practicesthrough political pressure and circumventing laws, from the company of taxis driven by technology made to undertake its landing in new markets.

The American company managed to penetrate the main cities around the world thanks to an estrategy that went through breaking laws, deceiving and lobbying in the highest spheresaccording to one filtration of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The more than 124,000 documents that make up the ‘Uber Files‘ exposes the practices of the company he ran at the time Travis Kalnick and that they went through courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media moguls.

The leaked documents are dated between 2013 and 2017 and include communications from Kalanick himself with his managers. One of them acknowledges that they behave like “pirates” and in another leaked document it says that “they simply we are fucking illegal“.

There are 40 affected countries by the documents gathered by the British newspaper ‘Guardian‘, which has shared the same with 180 journalists from 29 countries, including ‘El País’ and ‘laSexta’ in the case of Spain.

Uber: “Our past behaviors are not consistent with our current values”

In response, from Uber they have indicated that “we have not put nor will we make excuses for past behavior that are clearly not consistent with our current values.

Given this leak, Uber has explained that today it is a “different company”. “We ask that they judge us for what we have done in the last five years and what we will do in the next few years,” he stressed.

political pressures

In the documents there is a conversation between Kalanick and the current French president, Emmanuel Macronthen Minister of the Economy, who reveals that helped the company secretly to penetrate France facilitating access to high officials. Macron even mentions that the company had a secret “agreement” with its rivals within the French government.

Other politicians who were not as responsive were clearly despised by Uber executives, according to these communications. Thus, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, demanded an increase in drivers’ wages when he was mayor of Hamburg. “He is a real clown”, commented the leaders of the company.

Until now the American president, Joe Bidenwas despised by Kalanick, who commented on a planned meeting between the two in the World Economic Forum of Davos that “I have told my people to tell them that every minute they are late is one minute less that they will be with me”. So Biden was the vice president of Barack Obama and one of the firmest defenders of the company.

“Violence guarantees success”

The business model involved services that were economically unsustainable but that allowed them to control the market in cities around the world, from Moscow to Johannesburg, and put pressure on the authorities so that their app could be used.

In many cities they were successful, but in others their penetration was not as wide and the offensive was redoubled. “It’s a normal part of Uber’s business…Embrace chaos. You’re doing something important,” Kalanick said of the India entry.

In countries like Belgium, Spain, Italy either France the conflict reached the streets with serious protests by taxi drivers. In Paris the company encouraged Uber drivers to participate in counter-protests and actions of civil disobedience.

When Kalanick was warned of the risk of a response from “far-right thugs” and that he was “fueling a fight,” he said “it’s worth it.” “Violence guarantees success and you have to face these guys, right?” He riveted. This strategy is in accordance with the proposal of another document in which it is proposed to “use drivers as a weapon” and take advantage of the violence they would suffer “to feed the fire of controversy.”

All this responded to a script that was applied in Italy, Belgium, Spain or Switzerland, according to leaked emails. When hooded men believed to be taxi drivers attacked Uber drivers with hammers in Amsterdam in 2015, the company won concessions from authorities.

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Drivers were encouraged to report to the police.. “They will be the front page tomorrow. We continue for a few more days with the discourse of violence and later, the solution” in front of the taxi “cartel”, says one of the texts.

A spokesman for Kalanick has stressed that “he never suggested that Uber should take advantage of the violence at the expense of driver safety.” Any suggestion that he did such a thing would be totally untrue.