Uber to pay $178 million to thousands of Australian taxi drivers

Uber agreed to pay 178 million dollars more than 8,000 taxi and car-for-hire operators and licensees in Australia due to loss of income when the multinational entered the ocean country, according to legal sources released this Monday.

The agreement between Uber and taxi drivers, which represents the fifth largest class-action settlement in the ocean nation’s history, was reached during court proceedings following a lawsuit launched in 2019 in the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria, whose capital is Melbourne.

“The court will have to approve the agreement because it is favorable to the interests of the group members and that process is now being worked on,” the law firm Maurice Blackburn, which represents the plaintiffs, announced on its website today.

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers director Michael Donelly explained this during the legal battle Uber “fought tooth and nail”although the agreement would leave the responsibility of the multinational “beyond any doubt”, according to statements carried by the Australian public channel ABC.

For its part, Uber emphasized in a statement published today that with the agreement it hopes to leave problems with taxi drivers and rent-a-car drivers in the past.

He also reminded that since 2018 of “significant” contributions to benefit plans in this sector.

Likewise, the multinational emphasized that when it started operating more than ten years ago in the southern country, there were no vehicle-sharing regulations anywhere in the world, “let alone in Australia.”

Now their activities are regulated and are part of the transport services in the country.

Uber is currently valued at around US$160 billion and is a major dominator of the shared transportation sector with a presence in 72 countries.

In various countries, taxi drivers have complained or staged protests against unfair competition from Uber and other ride-hailing (VTC) companies, demanding stricter regulations in the sector.