Operating without permission While it was expanding, Uber was accused of commencing operations in a city based on a loose interpretation of local regulations or by ignoring them completely and then using
lobbying to change regulations.
Legal cases by taxi companies and taxi drivers Taxi companies sued Uber in Boston, alleging that Uber acted unlawfully in the years prior to ride-sharing regulations being implemented in the city; courts ruled in favor of Uber. In the U.S., although some courts did find that Uber intentionally violated taxi rules, Uber prevailed in every case, including the only case to proceed to trial. Anoush Cab, Inc. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., No. 19-2001 (1st Cir. 2021) alleged that Uber caused asset devaluation by competing unfairly; the trial resulted in a full verdict for Uber. Flywheel, the largest operator of taxis in San Francisco, sued Uber in 2016, alleging
antitrust violations and
predatory pricing. In 2021, a federal judge threw out the bulk of the case and Uber settled the remainder of the case by integrating Flywheel taxis into its mobile app. In 2019, 8,000 taxi drivers, represented by law firm
Maurice Blackburn, filed a
class action lawsuit against Uber in Australia alleging
illegal taxi operations, loss of income and loss of value of taxi and/or hire car licenses. Uber agreed to settle the case by paying AU$271.8 million.
Classification of drivers as gig workers Accusations of misleading drivers Uber has paid to settle accusations of having misled drivers about potential earnings and shortchanging drivers.
Driver control over fares In the United States, drivers do not have any control over the fares they charge. A lawsuit filed in California, Gill et al. v. Uber Technologies, Inc. et al., alleged that this is a violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The lawsuit was denied
class action status; a judge forced each plaintiff to go to
arbitration individually. The case was dropped in March 2024.
Discrimination against a blind customer In April 2021, an arbitrator ruled against Uber in a case involving Lisa Irving, a blind American customer with a guide dog who was denied rides on 14 separate occasions. Uber was ordered to pay
US$1.1 million, reflecting $324,000 in damages and more than $800,000 in attorney fees and court costs.
Greyball In March 2017, an investigation by
The New York Times revealed that Uber developed a software tool called "Greyball" to avoid giving rides to known law enforcement officers in areas where its service was illegal such as in
Portland, Oregon,
Australia,
South Korea, and
China, leading to government inquiries. The tool identified government officials using
geofencing, mining credit card databases, identifying devices, and searches of social media. While at first, Uber stated that it only used the tool to identify riders that violated its
terms of service, after investigations by
Portland, Oregon, and the
United States Department of Justice, Uber admitted to using the tool to skirt local regulations and promised not to use the tool for that purpose. The use of Greyball in London was cited by
Transport for London as one of the reasons for its decision not to renew Uber's private hire operator licence in September 2017.
Ripley - kill switch A January 2018 report by
Bloomberg News stated that Uber routinely used a "panic button" system, codenamed "Ripley", that locked, powered off and changed passwords on staff computers when those offices were subjected to government raids. Uber allegedly used this button at least 24 times, from spring 2015 until late 2016. The company claimed the kill switches were not intended to obstruct justice, but rather to protect
intellectual property, customer privacy, and due process and that no data was permanently deleted, and was available for authorities to obtain later.
Counter-intelligence research on class action plaintiffs In 2016, Uber hired Ergo, a global security consulting firm, to secretly investigate plaintiffs involved in a class action lawsuit. Ergo operatives posed as acquaintances of the plaintiff's counsel and tried to contact their associates to obtain information. As a result, the judge threw out evidence that was obtained in a fraudulent manner.
Insufficient accessibility According to a lawsuit filed in 2018, not enough Uber drivers own a
wheelchair accessible vans (WAV), in violation of accessibility laws.
Refusal to transport service animals While drivers are required to transport service animals, drivers have been criticized for refusal to transport service animals, which, in the United States, is in violation of the
Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2021, an arbitrator awarded $1.1 million to a visually impaired passenger who travels with a
guide dog because she was denied Uber rides 14 separate times.
Sexual harassment settlement (2017) On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineer
Susan Fowler published on her website that she was propositioned for sex by a manager and subsequently threatened with
termination of employment by another manager if she continued to report the incident. Travis Kalanick, the CEO at the time, was allegedly aware of the complaint. On February 27, 2017,
Amit Singhal, Uber's Senior Vice President of Engineering, was forced to resign after he failed to disclose a
sexual harassment claim against him that occurred while he served as Vice President of
Google Search. After investigations led by former attorney general
Eric Holder and
Arianna Huffington, a member of Uber's
board of directors, in June 2017, Uber fired over 20 employees. Kalanick took an indefinite leave of absence but, under pressure from investors, he resigned as CEO a week later. Also departing the company in June 2017 was
Emil Michael, a senior vice president who suggested that Uber hire a team of opposition researchers and journalists, with a million-dollar budget, to "dig up dirt" on the personal lives and backgrounds of journalists who reported negatively on Uber, specifically targeting
Sarah Lacy, editor of
PandoDaily, who, in an article published in October 2014, accused Uber of
sexism and
misogyny in its advertising. In August 2018, Uber agreed to pay a total of $7 million to settle claims of gender discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environment, with 480 employees and former employees receiving $10,700 each and 56 of those employees and former employees receiving an additional $33,900 each. In December 2019, Kalanick resigned from the
board of directors of the company and sold his shares.
Illegal concealment of data breaches In 2020, the
US Department of Justice announced criminal charges against former Chief Security Officer
Joe Sullivan for
obstruction of justice. The criminal complaint said Joe Sullivan arranged with Travis Kalanick's knowledge, to pay a ransom for the 2016 data breach as a "bug bounty" to conceal its true nature, and for the hackers to falsify non-disclosure agreements to say they had not obtained any data.
Privacy fines In January 2024, Uber was fined €10 million by the
Dutch Data Protection Authority for violating privacy regulations pertaining to the personal data of its drivers. The authority determined that Uber had failed to provide clear information in its terms and conditions regarding the duration for which it retained drivers' personal data, as well as the measures taken to secure this data when transmitting it to undisclosed entities outside the
European Economic Area. In August 2024, Uber was fined €290 million by the
Dutch Data Protection Authority for transferring the personal data of European drivers to US servers in breach of the
GDPR.
Deceptive billing practices In April 2025, the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Uber, alleging that it enrolled some of its customers in the $9.99 monthly Uber One service without their consent, and used unlawful tactics to make cancellation difficult for consumers. In December 2025, 21 US states and
Washington, D.C. joined the FTC in filing an amended complaint seeking civil penalties against Uber for allegedly violating both state laws and the federal
Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act.
Passenger safety and sexual assault lawsuits (2024) In February 2024, a multidistrict litigation (MDL) was established in the Northern District of California against Uber Technologies, Inc., consolidating numerous claims from among the more than 3,000 sexual assault lawsuits filed against the company in state and federal courts. These lawsuits allege Uber prioritized growth over safety by using inadequate background checks, skipping in-person driver vetting, and failing to invest in preventive measures such as cameras or monitoring systems. It also claims Uber knowingly put vulnerable passengers, such as intoxicated women, at risk through its marketing and business practices. The litigation seeks injunctive relief, damages and changes to Uber's safety policies. Some survivors have chosen to pursue justice in state courts outside of the MDL, seeking faster resolutions and a more individualized approach.
Wage theft claims In 2020, 5,000 drivers filed wage and hour claims with the California labour commission office against Uber and
Lyft, alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors.
Rideshare Drivers United in California claimed that at least 250,000 individual rideshare drivers in California who drove for the apps between 2016 and 2020 are estimated to be eligible for the settlement for wage theft claims of tens of billions of dollars.
Data breaches and related fines On February 27, 2015, Uber admitted that it had suffered a
data breach more than nine months prior. Names and license plate information from approximately 50,000 drivers were inadvertently disclosed. Uber discovered this leak in September 2014, but waited more than five months to notify the affected individuals. An announcement in November 2017 revealed that in 2016, a separate data breach had disclosed the personal information of 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers. This data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and drivers' license information. Hackers used employees' usernames and passwords that had been compromised in previous breaches (a "
credential stuffing" method) to gain access to a private
GitHub repository used by Uber's developers. The hackers located credentials for the company's
Amazon Web Services datastore in the repository files, and were able to obtain access to the account records of users and drivers, as well as other data contained in over 100
Amazon S3 buckets. Uber paid a $100,000 ransom to the hackers on the promise they would delete the stolen data. Uber was subsequently criticized for concealing this data breach. Dara Khosrowshahi publicly apologized. In September 2018, in the largest multi-state settlement of a data breach, Uber paid $148 million to the
Federal Trade Commission, and admitted that internal access to consumers' personal information was closely monitored on an ongoing basis was false, and stated that it had failed to live up to its promise to provide reasonable security for consumer data. In November 2018, Uber's British divisions were fined £385,000 (reduced to £308,000) by the
Information Commissioner's Office. On September 15, 2022, Uber discovered a security breach of its internal network by a
hacker that utilized
social engineering to obtain an employee's credentials and gain access to the company's
VPN and
intranet. The company said that no sensitive data had been compromised. == Corporate affairs ==