California judge allows cabbies to sue Uber for falsely advertising "safest rides on the road"
Your words can indeed be used against you in a court of law, at least if you have pissed off pretty much every cab driver on the globe (we're looking at you, Uber). After failing to take down Uber using other methods, 19 California taxi companies joined together to file a class action lawsuit using Uber's claim to offer the “safest rides on the road” against the ridesharing service.
Efforts by Uber to nip the lawsuit in the bud have failed since it was filed in March, and now a California judge is allowing it to proceed, pointing out that statements by Uber on its website and advertisements could be taken by a "reasonable customer" to “conclude that an Uber ride is objectively and measurably safer than a ride provided by a taxi.”
The lawsuit points out Uber’s claim that “every ridesharing and livery driver in the U.S. is thoroughly screened,” when in fact criminal background checks only go back seven years, whereas taxis do fingerprint background checks, which cover an applicant’s entire life since 18.
Evidence of poor scrutiny indeed seems rife in news horror stories and allows committed fraudsters to work the system, including one applicant, who was approved by Uber despite having 24 alias names, five listed birth dates, 10 listed Social Security numbers, and an active warrant for arrest.
If Uber is shaken by the lawsuit, the company isn't showing it — in fact, quite the opposite, stating to the San Francisco Chronicle:
“We’re pleased that the court dismissed a substantial portion of the claims, and we continue to believe that the remainder of the lawsuit lacks merit.”
No doubt the lawsuit will add to tensions everywhere, especially at Los Angeles Airport, where UberX and Lyft just won permission from the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners to pick up passengers at the airport (as opposed to just dropping them off) starting this August. Look no further than the slogans on the yellow t-shirts of cab drivers protesting outside LAX administration building: “Uber driver or convicted felon? BOTH.”