“The confidentiality and the intensity of the contacts between Uber, Mr. Emmanuel Macron and his cabinet testify to an opaque but privileged relationship”, including since his accession to the presidency of the Republic, according to the report.
The President of the Republic, Minister of the Economy at the material time, he continues, had made a “secret deal” with the American company so that it gives up its controversial application Uber Pop in exchange for the simplification of conditions necessary to obtain a transport car license with driver (VTC). “It is in defiance of all legality, and thanks to aggressive lobbying of public decision-makers, that the American company has managed to compete unfairly” with taxis, the report still poses in its introduction.
120 people interviewed including two former Prime Ministers
Among the members of the commission of inquiry, twelve deputies validated the final report – all those from Nupes, the Liot group or the RN – but the ten Renaissance deputies and their allies, as well as the only elected LR, are abstained.
The commission of inquiry, launched six months ago, interviewed 120 people including two former Prime Ministers, Bernard Cazeneuve and Emmanuel Valls, as well as former executives of Uber to try to identify the actions of Uber in France between 2014 and 2017.
“34 exchanges with the services of the President of the Republic between 2018 and 2022”
The case was triggered by the revelation of the Uber Files, the leak of 124,000 internal documents collected by Mark McGann, a former lobbyist on behalf of Uber, and communicated to the British newspaper The Guardian.
According to elements mentioned in the document by the rapporteur Danielle Simonnet (LFI), Uber also had “34 exchanges with the services of the President of the Republic between 2018 and 2022”. The report’s conclusions were harshly criticized by the chairman of the commission of inquiry, Benjamin Haddad (Renaissance), who criticized Danielle Simonnet for politicizing the case.
“There was neither compromise, nor + secret + deal, nor conflict of interest, nor counterparties, contrary to what our rapporteur is trying to demonstrate in vain”, he wrote in his foreword, testifying to the strong disagreements between the members of the commission of inquiry.