back to article It's been a few days, so what fresh trouble has Uber got into now?

Lawsuit magnet Uber today settled one case in Washington – while a much larger potential issue has arisen in Philadelphia. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has reportedly expanded its probe into Uber's "Greyball" technology to cover the dial-a-ride app's shenanigans in the city of Philadelphia along with the previously …

  1. MrDamage Silver badge

    Criminal Act?

    It's called "attempting to pervert the course of justice".

    1. Alan Penzotti

      Re: Criminal Act?

      The course of justice is already perverted; next question.

  2. The Nazz

    How's that gonna work?

    How are Uber gonna contact people to see if they wish to receive texts, any texts, the first text even.

    Obviously they shouldn't but will they not text to say "Do you wish to receive this text".

    Presumably, though it doesn't say, the agreement should include immediate criminal charges for any subsequent spammy texts. I'm not holding my breath.

    1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      Re: How's that gonna work?

      What they need is a system like the EU mandated cookie warning - you know, something really useful.

  3. Zolko Silver badge

    criminal act ?

    Uber's use of the tool to evade police detection should be considered a criminal act

    why is there even a doubt about this ? Identifying legal prosecutors and then feeding them false information to evade inspection cannot be seen as anything else than illegal in any jurisdiction. Except Luxembourg, may-be.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: criminal act ?

      I'm not defending Uber, but I'm not sure this would be illegal in most countries. It is unlikely to be illegal in the UK.

      Now, IANAL, but as far as I there is no law (as in criminal) against putting our false data on your own app to anyone, other than potential for civil cases, for instance under consumer contracts or possibly mis-advertising, and nearly all UK law needs to have a law against doing 'something' for it to be illegal. If the police or other law enforcement had not gone to court to seek an order stopping Uber from providing false information (which they couldn't if they didn't know they were doing it) or informed Uber of an official investigation and sought a court order placing restrictions on what they could and couldn't do then there is unlikely to be a crime committed (in the UK).

      Perverting the course of justice charge would require that it can be proved that Uber were breaking the law and that they were then trying to cover up their actual breaking of the law. Now this may seem exactly what they were trying to do, but it wouldn't be easy to prove that in the courts as can be seen by the case brought against Rebekah Brooks (who, for clarification, was found not guilty).

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prediction...

    Sadly, it seems a rogue engineer exceeded his authority by coding and releasing Greyball, entirely without the knowledge or consent of the executive board. He has since been fired. Uber will be entering into a settlement without any admission of liability, thus avoiding any criminal prosecution, and drawing a line under this painful moment for the company.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Prediction...

      What you did there, I see it.

    2. SnowPatrol

      Re: Prediction...

      Does Uber have enough engineers to cover every lawsuit?

      1. John Gamble

        Re: Prediction...

        I'm sure Volkswagen can supply enough to cover Uber's needs. It might even help VW's bottom line.

        1. Mike Moyle

          Re: Prediction...

          "I'm sure Volkswagen can supply enough to cover Uber's needs. It might even help VW's bottom line."

          Venture capitalists looking to invest in the next Disruptive Technology(TM) might want to explore our new "Fallguys as a Service" (FAAS) offering. We can supply interested companies with engineers accredited in any discipline ready and willing to be thrown under a bus* to protect directors and C-level management.

          (* Metaphorical buses only, please. For employees willing to be thrown under PHYSICAL buses, please ask about our "Suicides as a Service" offering.)

    3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      "a rogue engineer exceeded his authority by coding and releasing Greyball, "

      Good to see the "one bad apple" defense is alive and well.

    4. Tom Paine

      Re: Prediction...

      Except that they've already acknowledged it was an official programme.

      To misquote Marvin, Uber's bad enough as it is without needing to invent any more of it.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Happy

        "Except that they've already acknowledged it was an official programme."

        Good.

        That means they can't hide behind the "one bad apple" defense.

        Game on.

  5. a_yank_lurker

    Is there an adult in the house?

    Uber needs some adults to take over.

    1. Warm Braw

      Re: Is there an adult in the house?

      An adult would realise that Uber is an impossible fantasy. No adult will be allowed near while the kids still have money left to play with.

  6. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Uber is a 4-letter word

    Treat the company like any other one.

    The next scams....??? will be accident liability. When Uber is finally declared to be an employer they'll no doubt try to get out of accident claims by saying that the driver 'according to their routing'(cough-cough) should not have been on that road at that time and deny any liability leaving the poor driver without insurance.

    More lawyers are gonna get rich on the back of this.

    Yep, a 4-letter word all right.

  7. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Pirate

    Breach of Contracy? Fraud?

    "It is alleged that phones identified on "Greyball" were flagged to drivers as breaking Uber's terms of service and the users were assigned fake drivers when they requested a ride with the Uber app. (The drivers, of course, never showed up.)"

    Surely even in the USofContracts, agreeing a contract between parties places some obligations on the supplier to inform the customer if the "goods" are not going to be delivered? At the point where the "taxi" is booked, a contract is entered into and no matter the T&Cs, Uber are under an obligation to meet that contract or inform the other party that the contract is now void based on the Ts&Cs without informing the other party.

    I'd be inclined to charge Uber with knowing and wilful fraud since they deliberately and specifically targeted these groups of people and took their bookings with no intention to fulfil the contract or warn the customer that they were banned from the service.

    1. Tom Paine

      Re: Breach of Contracy? Fraud?

      How can it be fraud when no money changed hands?

    2. Steve Hersey

      I think Obstruction of Justice will be anough

      I imagine that Uber actively detecting the enforcement authorities in places it wasn't allowed to operate, then feeding them a fake app to conceal the illegal operation, constitutes obstruction of justice. That seems quite apparent, though applying logic to the operations of law is always fraught with the most extreme hazard.

  8. Huey

    I see

    someone in here is a Will Smith fan.

    In other news Uber is bad!

  9. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Mob tactics.

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