UBER SETTLES DRIVERS’ FARE
BLAIR JACKSON
Uber will pay Australian taxi drivers a $271m settlement in a major class action settled in-principle in court on
Monday.

The class action, which involves more than 8000 taxi and hire car owners, was sparked by what the drivers’
lawyers called Uber’s aggressive move into the Australian market, diminishing the existing drivers’ income and licence values.

The drivers’ law firm, Maurice Blackburn, says the $271.8m agreement is the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australian history.

Parties concerned appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria before Justice Lisa Nichols for a brief hearing on Monday.

The settlement was reached on Sunday night, avoiding a ten-week trial, the court was told.

A settlement schedule will be presented to the court at an expected directions hearing on April 12.

Outside court, lead claimant and former Melbourne taxi driver Nick Adrianakis said Uber decimated the industry he worked in for 40 years.
“The result today, I’m very pleased with,” he said.
“We suggested Uber acted illegally and they needed to pay. This was a win for small businesses, of mum and dad investors.

“I feel great, it’s been a five-year battle and pretty emotional. The taxi industry was decimated … today we can go down as a winner.”

Mr Adrianakis said he was no longer in the industry, and that Uber’s disruption cost him millions of dollars.

“I lost my passion for work,” he said. “I lost my (taxi) plates that were half a million dollars each.
And I lost my income that provided food on the table for my family.”

Maurice Blackburn principal Michael Donelly said 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”.

In 2019 when the suit was gaining plaintiffs, it was speculated the drivers could pursue up to a $1bn settlement.

Maurice Blackburn’s $30m-$35m in legal fees was paid for by a third party class action financier.
Outside court, Uber’s lawyer John Sheahan, KC, declined to answer with any detail questions about why the settlement was reached and how.

“The parties reached an agreement, that’s it … you reach an agreement when you agree,” he said.

In a statement, an Uber spokesman said that when Uber started more than a decade ago, “ridesharing regulations did not exist anywhere in the world, let alone Australia”.

“Today is different, and Uber is now regulated in every state and territory across Australia, and governments recognise us as an important part of the nation’s transport mix,” he said.

“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.”

I find it hard to feel sorry for the taxi drivers.

For so many years they ripped us off, so ... a bit of karma perhaps(?).

I use Uber all the time now - haven't caught a taxi for years.

The last time I caught a taxi (at midnight at the airport) the driver told me (lied to me) that his meter wasn't working, and seeing as it was midnight he couldn't get it repaired until the morning.

So, he slugged me a fixed fare.

This happens every single day at Perth airport, and they're allowed to get away with it.

Both services are far from perfect, but I'm sticking with Uber for now.

I would feel a bit silly.

Why were we requiring taxi drivers to pay $500,000 for the privilege in the first place? My guess is it was basically a government-supported anti-competitive behaviour that the existing taxi drivers were in on.

Bobby. wrote on Mar 20^th, 2024 at 1:33pm:


Yes, that is what the government did. But why would they limit the number of taxis?

So it was government endorsed anti-competitive behaviour.

At least he didn't pay $500,000 for a taxi licence.