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By Nasos Stylianou, Becky Dale and Will Dahlgreen
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Uber File Reporting Team, BBC Panorama
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July 11, 2022
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technology
In just over a decade, Uber has revolutionized the way we move around our cities. The ride hailing app has changed the game: you just tap your phone and the taxi will find you. You even paid through the app.
The California tech company helped define the gig economy, where workers are seen as self-employed. Uber now has millions of drivers worldwide and takes billions of pounds in fares.
Uber often describes the regulated taxi industry it’s trying to break into as a “cartel.”
But the company has been rocked by scandals. Uber drivers are fighting for their rights. And now a whistleblower has exposed the dark tricks used by Uber to break into the lucrative European markets.
Mark McGann was one of Uber’s top executives. He was the company’s chief lobbyist, meeting with senior members of government and heads of state in over 40 countries.
“People were almost flocking to meet Uber and hear what we had to offer,” McGann told the Guardian in an exclusive interview (see video below).
“It was extremely easy to gain access to the highest echelons of power and decision-making. It was intoxicating.”
Now he has become a whistleblower.
Thousands of documents were leaked to the Guardian, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and media partners around the world, including the BBC.
Uber’s filings are an unprecedented insight into how one of the world’s best-known technology companies lobbied at the highest level to support its aggressive expansion into Europe.
Uber has raised billions in investment, using funds to attract drivers and passengers and challenge the rules. But Uber needed political support to disrupt the taxi industry.
The leaks reveal how unannounced meetings, high-level lobbying and backroom deals helped Uber get top politicians to back its radical plans. The leaked documents span the years Uber has been trying to break into Europe and show how much Uber is willing to spend to get closer to power. In 2016, its lobbying and public relations budget was $90 million (£75 million).
They also reveal the shocking details of how widely Uber used secret technology to evade justice and showed just how ruthless the company was prepared to be. The company’s steamroller tactics were evident in almost every European city it launched in, but nowhere more so than Paris, Amsterdam and London.
Part 1: Paris
The taxi wars
Paris was the first European city where Uber launched. It’s also where co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp first had the idea for the app when they couldn’t find a cab on a freezing cold night.
Paris had a strong network of licensed city taxis with the monopoly of picking up commuters around the city. Uber’s arrival caused chaos.
Uber bills itself as a technology firm that connects passengers with private rental cars — mini-cabs — that must be reserved in advance. Except that its drivers could be summoned within minutes at the push of a button, right on the side of the road. What’s more, Uber’s prices were atrocious — and there was no need to carry cash.
Paris taxi drivers were losing customers and revenue – and in 2014 they took to the streets to protest. It was an all-out war. Taxi drivers attacked Ubers carrying terrified passengers, smashing their windows and slashing their tires.
But Uber had a mantra, McGann says: “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.” Instead of bowing to the pressure, Uber pushed harder.
In February 2014, a controversial new service called UberPop launched – dubbed a “ride-sharing” service, it was the cheapest option on the app and like offering someone a lift.
UberPop drivers did not have to have a professional license or be insured as a taxi driver. This meant that virtually anyone with a car could become a taxi driver, and many jumped at the chance.
In one fell swoop the taxi drivers had lost their advantage.
Uber immediately hit back at the authorities, receiving a €100,000 fine for misleadingly advertising the new service as parking. New legislation has been discussed that would impose strict regulations on UberPop and similar ride-sharing services.
But Uber had also begun to befriend a young politician in his first ministerial post: Emmanuel Macron.
Reuters
In 2014, Macron was Minister of the Economy and Digital Affairs and Rising Star. He came into government with the aim of shaking things up and wanted to tackle unemployment by liberalizing traditional labor structures. Uber fit this model perfectly.
The leaked documents reveal that company executives, including MacGann and Uber’s CEO at the time, Travis Kalanick, attended a series of meetings with Macron. Only one of them has been made public so far.
Uber said the first meeting with Macron on October 1, 2014 was “spectacular. Like I’ve never seen.” The firm believed it had found a strong political advocate.
The leaked documents also contain dozens of private messages and emails between Uber and its powerful new friend. Their communications were friendly and at times casual.
By: Travis Kalanick
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