From Delhi rape case to tax frauds, leaked documents of Uber showed how it broke laws and duped its passengers.
Uber aggressively pushed into markets around the world. The ride company started from a scrappy Silicon Valley startup to a world-famous multi-billion-dollar company. Uber has been in the market for 13 long years. The company had already expanded over more than 80 countries and territories by the height of its international operations in 2017.
Recently, a series of leaked documents of Uber shed light on Uber’s dark rise to success by winning favours from politicians, regulators, leaders, cashing in on violence among others.
According to a global media investigation for the leaked files, this ride service persuaded top political leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron to relax labour and taxi laws.
The report also reveals the company used a special feature known as “kill switch” to oppose regulators and law enforcement. This feature channelled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which is a non-profit network of investigative reporters scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents to deliver what it called “an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers’ rights”. The Uber Files leak consists of over 124,000 documents spanning the period between 2013 and 2017.
In India, Uber pays its drivers 20 percent to 30 percent of their fares in commissions, which is double the amount when this car pool service was launched in the world’s largest democracy.
