Uber has agreed to pay 271.8 million Australian dollars (about 164 million euros) to more than 8,000 taxi and rental car operators and licensees in Australia for lost income generated when it entered the country in 2012.
The case dates back to 2019, with a class action lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The taxi drivers defended that during its implementation Uber carried out "scandalous conduct", going so far as to use "unlicensed cars with unlicensed drivers". With that unfair competition, the main plaintiff, Nick Andrianakis, explained to local media that he was forced to close his taxi business after 40 years in the business when Uber was launched.
The agreement would leave the multinational's liability "beyond any doubt," according to Michael Donell, director of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, which represents the plaintiffs. The company "fought tooth and nail during the five years of the process" to deny any compensation, he added.
Uber has stressed in a statement that when it began its operations in the country there were no rules on car sharing anywhere in the world, "much less in Australia", although now its activities are regulated and are part of the services of transportation of the country.
The class action settlement has been found to be the fifth largest settlement in the country for this type of proceeding. With the agreement, Uber hopes to leave behind the problems with taxi drivers and rental car drivers, remembering that since 2018 it has made "significant" contributions to the sector's compensation plans.
In various nations, including Spain, taxi drivers have complained or have carried out protest actions about unfair competition from Uber and other rental vehicle companies with drivers (VTC), asking for stricter regulations in the sector.
