Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million ($178 million USD) to settle a lawsuit brought by Australian taxi operators and drivers. The drivers said they lost income when Uber moved into the country in 2012.
According to Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, the firm representing the drivers, the settlement is the fifth largest in Australian legal history.
Reuters reported that the class action suit was filed in 2019 in the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria on behalf of over 8,000 taxi and hire car owners, accusing Uber of breaking laws and requiring taxis and hire cars to be licensed.
The lawsuit stated that the company's arrival took revenue from licensed taxi drivers while destroying the value of the licenses they paid for.
"Uber fought tooth and nail at every point along the way," Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Michael Donelly said in a statement."On the courtroom steps, and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant."
Uber: Taxi Drivers' Lawsuit a 'Legacy Issue'
Uber previously said that they never knowingly broke the law, but a company representative stated that they have contributed to state-level taxi compensation schemes since 2018 "and with today's proposed settlement, [they] put these legacy issues firmly in our past."
They also described the complaints of the taxi industry as "legacy issues" and said that rideshare regulations did not exist anywhere in the world when the company started over a decade ago.
"The rise of ridesharing has grown Australia's overall point-to-point transport industry, bringing with it greater choice and improved experiences for consumers, as well as new earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers," the statement added.
Ex-MP: Uber Chose Not to License its Drivers
Former lawmaker and taxi driver Rod Barton, a class action member, said the settlement vindicated his belief that Uber had knowingly avoided the country's taxi licensing rules.
"They knew full well they were required to have their drivers and their vehicles fully licensed," he told Australian public broadcaster ABC. "They chose not to do that, and they did a lot of things that gave them a commercial advantage against the taxi industry, which established their foothold."
The law was changed in 2015 which allowed Uber to operate without taxi licenses while state governments set up compensation schemes for taxi drivers and license owners.
ABC reported that another non-class action proceeding by Taxi Apps Pty. Ltd. is expected to go to trial in the coming weeks.
