True to its DNA, the Uber platform said on Sunday that it would not make excuses for its “past”. An international investigation of journalists has just made public information which shows that the company has resorted to questionable, even illegal, practices to impose itself.
A questionable and contested company
If you’ve been a reader of ZDNet for a few years, not much of what’s revealed will have escaped your notice, from the Greyball scandal and customer tracking to questionable cybersecurity practices and cavalier labor law enforcement. Still, this survey gives a frightening overall portrait of a society with a predatory and destructive entrepreneurial will.
The data used by the journalists (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – ICIJ) covers the period from 2013 to 2017. They have been grouped under the name “Uber Files”, in reference to other scandals made public by the press by obtaining internal documents.
“We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviors that are clearly not aligned with our current values,” said Jill Hazelbaker, Uber’s vice president of public affairs, in a statement. communicated. “We have moved from an era of confrontation to an era of collaboration. »
“Lobbyist” responsible for deregulating labor law in favor of the platform
Uber thought it had finally turned the page on that troubled time after it fired the company’s founder, Travis Kalanick, in June 2017. Made public, his cowboy actions towards drivers, his teams, the competition and the authorities had left him worth being cast aside.
But the Uber Files, made up of internal messages (emails and SMS), reveal the links that united Emmanuel Macron and the company Uber, and especially its CEO at the time. The President of the Republic, then Minister of the Economy, was heavily involved in the establishment and consolidation of the VTC giant in France.
To the point that some left-wing politicians now qualify his role as a “lobbyist” responsible for deregulating labor law in favor of the platform. Uber “was able to benefit from the benevolence and support of Emmanuel Macron when he was at the Ministry of the Economy”, argue the journalists.
When Travis Kalanick texted Emmanuel Macron
From October 2014, when Emmanuel Macron has only been Minister of the Economy for five weeks, meetings and exchanges between the latter and Uber bosses, including Travis Kalanick, suggest a form of collaboration.
It is for Uber to slow down, or even prevent the concrete implementation of the Thévenoud law, supposed to regulate the activity of VTC in France and ban the UberPop service.
At the heart of the system is the lobbyist Mark MacGann, freshly recruited. The latter welcomes in internal documents throughout the months that follow the attentive ear of Bercy to the idea of deregulating the VTC sector.
Drafting of amendments and start-up nation
To the point of getting the minister to put a muzzle on the fraud prevention department, the DGCCRF, which is investigating the company, as well as on the prefectural authorities of Bouches-du-Rhône, which had decided to ban of Uber in Marseille in 2015.
Especially to the point of drafting three amendments for the vote of the Macron law, supposed to bury the Thévenoud law, and to have them carried by a socialist deputy of the majority, Luc Belot, open to the idea of ”positive disruption”.
Finally, to the point of ensuring that by decree the 250 hours of training necessary to become a driver provided for by the Thévenoud law are abolished. And that the duration of training for obtaining a license be reduced to seven hours.
When reading the survey, one question keeps coming up. If Uber’s lobbying activity seems logical, what was Emmanuel Macron’s interest in this affair? “It corresponds to his convictions, it is the start-up nation”, notes in this regard a source of the investigation.