Uber's expansion came with aggressive tactics: report

When US-based company Uber sought to expand its business abroad, it lobbied politicians to relax labor and taxi laws, sought to thwart regulators and law enforcement, and channeled cash through tax havens like Bermuda, according to an investigative report released Sunday.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit network, searched over 100,000 items of Uber's internal communications in order to offer "an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers' rights."

The documents at the heart of the investigation were first leaked to the UK newspaper The Guardian, which offered to share them with the consortium.

Why does the report mention Emmanuel Macron?

Among the allies Uber found in the French government was reportedly Emmanuel Macron, who served as the Economics Minister from 2014 until 2016. Uber believed Macron, now president, could encourage his country's regulators "to be 'less conservative' in their interpretation of rules limiting the company's operations," according to the investigation.

Opposition deputies denounced Macron after the report came out, accusing him of brokering a secret deal with the company.

When contacted for comment by the AFP news agency, Macron's presidential aides said the politician was in contact with the company in the normal course of his ministerial duties. As the economy minister, Macron has "naturally" been in contact with "many companies involved in the profound change in services that has occurred over the years mentioned, which should be facilitated by unravelling certain administrative or regulatory locks."

What is Uber?

Uber is a "ride-sharing" app that functions similarly to a taxi dispatch in numerous countries around the world. It has successfully encroached on local taxi markets, forcing down prices and driving numerous competitors out of business and rendering some taxi firms insolvent in the process.

The company was founded in 2009. Since then, it has brought down the economics of the taxi business in many countries of the world either directly or due to similarly functioning regional or local competitors with a similar business model as Uber.

What is it that Uber did to gain market share?

While it is unclear what if any laws Uber may have broken in pursuit of shattering regulations, the report said an army of lobbyists — including several who were aides to former US President Barack Obama — aggressively sought terms favorable to the company's bottom line.

The journalists' consortium's so-called Uber Files reveal the depths the company went to in its bid for market share in more than two dozen countries.

In at least six countries, Uber used a "kill switch" to block access to company servers during government raids, including once in Amsterdam, on an order given by the CEO at the time, Travis Kalanick, according to the investigation. 

The report also accused Kalanick of leveraging violence against Uber drivers in France by traditional taxi drivers as an opportunity to gin up support for its own fleet of drivers.

Uber is accused of funneling profits through the off-shore tax haven of Bermuda in a bid to skip out on its tax bills.

The company "sought to deflect attention from its tax liabilities by helping authorities collect taxes from its drivers," according to the reporters working for The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

What has the company said in response to the allegations?

Commenting on the claims of unfairness in competitive practices, Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker said "mistakes" had been made in the past. Hazelbaker said when CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was named in 2017, he had been "tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates."

"When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90% of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO," Hazelbaker said.

ar/dj (AFP, AP)