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By Nassos Stylianou, Becky Dale and Will Dahlgreen
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Uber Files 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 car transport app changed the game: you just touched your phone and a taxi would find you. You even paid through the app.
The California technology company helped define the gig economy, where workers saw themselves as self-employed. Uber now has millions of drivers worldwide and takes billions of pounds in fares.
Uber often described the regulated taxi industry it was trying to get into as a “cartel”.
But the company has been shaken by the scandals. Uber drivers are fighting for their rights. And now a whistleblower has revealed the dark tricks that Uber used to enter lucrative European markets.
Mark MacGann used to be one of Uber’s top executives. It was the company’s main lobby, meeting with senior members of the government and heads of state from more than 40 countries.
“People were almost falling for meeting Uber and listening to what we had to offer,” MacGann told the Guardian in an exclusive interview (see video below).
“It was extraordinarily easy to access the highest levels of power and decision making. It was intoxicating.”
He has now become a whistleblower.
Thousands of documents were leaked to The Guardian, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the media around the world, including the BBC.
Uber files are an unprecedented insight into how one of the world’s most notorious tech companies pushed to the highest level to help its aggressive expansion into Europe.
Uber raised billions in investments, using funds to attract drivers and passengers and defy the rules. But Uber needed political support to disrupt the taxi industry.
The leak reveals how undeclared meetings, high-level lobbying and rejection deals helped Uber get top politicians to support its radical plans. The leaked documents cover the years Uber tried to enter Europe and show how much Uber was willing to spend to get closer to power. In 2016, its lobbying and public relations budget was $ 90 million (£ 75 million).
They also expose the shocking detail of how Uber made extensive use of secret technology to evade justice and showed how ready the company was to be ruthless. The tactics of the steam company were evident in almost every European city where it was launched, but nowhere more than Paris, Amsterdam and London.
Part 1: Paris
The taxi wars
Paris was the first European city where Uber was launched. It’s also where co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp first got the idea for the app, when they couldn’t find a taxi on a cold night.
Paris had a strong network of authorized urban taxis with the monopoly of picking up passengers on the road through the city. The arrival of Uber caused chaos.
Uber presented itself as a technology company that connected passengers with private rental cars (minicabs) that had to be booked in advance. Except that your drivers could be summoned in minutes with the click of a button, directly from the side of the road. Also, Uber prices were cheeky and you didn’t need to have cash on hand.
Parisian taxi drivers were losing customers and revenue, and in 2014 they took to the streets to protest. Taxi drivers attacked Ubers carrying terrified passengers, smashed their windows and tires.
But Uber had a mantra, MacGann says, “It’s better to apologize than to ask permission.” Instead of giving in to pressure, Uber pushed harder.
In February 2014 he launched a controversial new service called UberPop, called a “shared travel” service, it was the cheapest option in the app and how to offer a lift to someone.
UberPop drivers did not need to have a professional license or be insured as taxi drivers. It meant that virtually anyone with a car could become a taxi driver, and many took the opportunity.
Suddenly, the taxi drivers had lost their advantage.
Uber immediately attacked the authorities and paid a fine of 100,000 euros for misleadingly announcing the new service as a car pool. New legislation that would impose strict regulations on UberPop and similar shared travel services was being debated.
But Uber had also begun befriending a young politician in his first ministerial post: Emmanuel Macron.
Reuters
In 2014, Macron was Minister of Economy and Digital Affairs, and a rising star. He had come to government with the aim of shaking things up and wanted to tackle unemployment by liberalizing traditional labor structures. Uber adapted this model perfectly.
The leaked documents reveal that company executives, including MacGann and Uber CEO at the time, Travis Kalanick, attended a series of meetings with Macron. Only one of them was made public before now.
Uber thought the first meeting with Macron on October 1, 2014 was “spectacular. Like I had never seen it before.” The firm believed it had found a strong political advocate.
The leaked documents also contain dozens of personal messages and emails between Uber and its powerful new friend. Their communications were friendly, and sometimes casual.
By: Travis Kalanick
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