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Uber class action settles for $272m after 5-year battle
After a five-year court battle, Uber will pay $272 million to compensate Australian taxi and hire car drivers, operators and licence holders, in what is the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australian history.
Lauren Croft
More than 8,000 Australian taxi operators who lost income and licence values when Uber moved into the Australian market will be compensated after Uber agreed to a mammoth $271.8 million settlement this morning (Monday 18 March).
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Maurice Blackburn filed the class action in the Victorian Supreme Court in 2019, after meeting with hundreds of individuals and groups who said they had been impacted by the company’s alleged “illegal entry” into the Australian market.
At the time, the firm said the class action would hold the rideshare platform accountable for “destroying the livelihoods” of thousands of taxi, hire car, charter vehicle and limousine drivers and licence owners across the country.
The class action was due to go to court this morning (Monday 18 March) but was vacated after the rideshare giant agreed to the settlement.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Michael Donelly said the settlement marks one of the most successful class actions against Uber in the world, and the fifth largest in Australian history.
“Uber fought tooth and nail at every point along the way, every day, for the five years this has been on foot, trying at every turn to deny our group members any form of remedy or compensation for their losses,” he said.
“But 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.
“This will be one of the top five class action settlements in Australian legal history – putting beyond any doubt that Uber has been held to account for its actions.”
As reported by the ABC, Maurice Blackburn’s fees are expected to be between $30 million and $35 million, with the remainder to be divided up between the group members.
“This case succeeded where so many others have failed. In Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, cases were brought against governments and all of them failed. What our group members asked for was not another set of excuses – but an outcome – and today we have delivered it for them,” Donelly added.
“We are extremely proud that thousands of people put their faith in us and Nick Andrianakis and allowed us to do what we do best – holding to account major organisations that we say inflicted mass wrongs on people.
“And we are extremely proud to have succeeded today in holding Uber to account, in securing the fifth largest ever class action recovery in Australian history for our clients, a $271.8 million sum that will finally put real money back into the accounts of people who have been devastated.”
The settlement is subject to approval by the Supreme Court.
