Uber Files | Cab-Hailing Firm Used Ruthless Tactics, Loopholes In Law To Expand Business: Reports

The Uber Files: Data revealed is from 2013 to 2017, the time when Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick was putting in all efforts to transform the Silicon Valley start-up into a mature company.

Tech giant Uber, which rules the world with its ride-hailing service, allegedly used "ruthless" strategies and tactics to reach where it is now, often using loopholes in law and regulation, an investigation by a colaboration of media publications has found. Led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The Guardian, the investigation involving over 180 journalists from 29 countries, including India, has found how the American cab-hailing firm allegedly flouted the law, duped police, and secretly lobbied the governments of different nations to expand its business.

The transport giant with operations in 72 countries today used different technologies to bypass regulators, tapped into a sprawling lobbying network, and aggressively cut corners, The Uber Files reveal after an investigation spanning four months and scanning 1.24 lakh confidential documents from inside Uber, said a report in The Indian Express, which was part of the investigation.

The documents leaked to The Guardian include emails, text messages and WhatsApp exchanges between Uber's most senior executives, besides memos, PowerPoint presentations, notebooks, briefing papers and invoices. The data is from 2013 to 2017, the time when co-founder Travis Kalanick was putting in all efforts to transform the Silicon Valley start-up into a mature company.

"When Mr Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009, he and the rest of the team pioneered an industry that has now become a verb. To do this required a change of the status quo, as Uber became a serious competitor in an industry where competition has been historically outlawed," Devon Spurgeon, a spokesperson of Kalanick, said in response to the revelations by ICIJ, the report said.

In August 2014, Uber’s then-Asia head Allen Penn reportedly wrote to the Indian team: "We’ve definitely made a splash in our first year in India…We will likely have both local and national issues in almost every city in India…That’s life running a business at Uber."

The details reveal Uber's spats with many Indian administrative specialists, including GST and income tax departments along with consumer forums, the Reserve Bank of India and the service tax department.

Using India as a case study for handling Service Tax issues, the transportation giant prepared a presentation for its staff in 2014, the report said. “Authorities want Uber to open their books, otherwise we are facilitating fraud,” the report quoted from a slide in a PowerPoint presentation that is part of the records.

In December 2014, the company was hit by a major crisis after a 25-year-old woman passenger New Delhi was raped in an Uber car by the driver.

Just six days after the rape of the woman, Nairi Hourdajian, then the head of Uber’s communications unit, began damage control to manage the situation, the report said. “Remember that everything is not in your control and that sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just f***ing illegal,” he reportedly wrote an email to his colleague on December 11, 2014. 

According to the IE report, the “panic button” that was introduced as a "safety feature" soon after the New Delhi rape incident is yet to integrate with the Delhi Police and state transport department's systems.

Their investigation also revealed that in order to keep Uber rides from prying police officers and government authorities, the company used tools like “greyball” and “geofencing” during Kalanick’s tenure.

The files reveal 13 examples of implementing the "kill switch" in a few countries — it's an in-house marker for a process to shuts down nearly local systems to firewall them from any inquiry. In six cases, the records uncover, the 'kill switch' was involved even as raids by regulators were underway at Uber offices.

In response to questions sent to Uber's India head Prabhjeet Singh, the company spokesperson said: “When Uber launched in India almost a decade ago, no ridesharing regulations existed at that time as the transportation laws did not conceive app-based ride sharing as an option."

The response added: "We have long championed rules and regulations that reflect changing technology and the interest of cities and our customers – riders and drivers alike. As a category-defining company, we applaud and support progressive regulatory change that is good for riders, drivers and cities."