Uber used deceitful and allegedly illegal methods during its “aggressive global expansion,” according to a massive leak of internal files and messages reported on Sunday in The Guardian.
The ride-hailing company reportedly “flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments,” while under co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick.
The Guardian obtained over 124,000 documents, including emails, WhatsApp messages, briefing papers and invoices that span from 2013 to 2017. The documents, dubbed the Uber files, cover the company’s business across more than 40 countries, according to The Guardian.
The leak was shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, as well as other publications including Le Monde, Washington Post and the BBC. CNET hasn’t independently verified the leaked documents.
Among the revelations in the Guardian’s report, French President Emmanuel Macron, serving at the time in the cabinet as minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, reportedly provided support for Kalanick when thousands of taxi drivers demonstrated against Uber in France in 2015.
Kalanick reportedly dismissed concerns from executives that sending Uber drivers to protests in France could put them at risk of violence. “I think it’s worth it,” he reportedly said. “Violence guarantee[s] success.”
Kalanick departed Uber in 2017, following a wave of scandals. He was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi, the former CEO of Expedia, who began his tenure with apologies for the company’s past conduct and an attempt to reform its “toxic” corporate culture.
The leaks also detail Uber’s efforts to lobby government officials during its expansion, including then-US Vice President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who at the time was mayor of Hamburg. These included attempts to change labor laws
“We have not and will not make excuses for past behavior that is clearly not in line with our present values,” Uber wrote in its response to the report, published on its website. “Instead, we ask the public to judge us by what we’ve done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come.”
The Guardian also published a lengthy statement from Kalanick’s spokesperson in response to the leak.
“Any accusation that Mr Kalanick directed, engaged in, or was involved” in illegal or improper conduct is “completely false,” reads the statement. “The reality was that Uber’s expansion initiatives were led by over a hundred leaders in dozens of countries around the world and at all times under the direct oversight and with the full approval of Uber’s robust legal, policy, and compliance groups.”
