Uber To Pay $178-M In Australia Taxi Class Action Settlement

Uber has agreed to pay A$271.8 million ($178 million) to settle a lawsuit brought by Australian taxi operators and drivers who say they lost income when the ride-hailing company moved into the country, a law firm said, Renju Jose and Byron Kaye reported for Reuters.

The lawsuit alleges that Uber's 2012 arrival in the market took revenue from licensed taxi drivers while destroying the value of the licenses for which they paid. I Photo: Ivan Radic Flickr

The settlement is Australia's fifth-largest, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said in a statement.

The class-action suit was filed in 2019 in the Supreme Court of Victoria state on behalf of more than 8,000 taxi and hire car owners and drivers, accusing Uber of breaking laws requiring taxis and hire cars to be licensed.

Uber's 2012 arrival in the market took revenue from licensed taxi drivers while destroying the value of the licenses they had paid for, according to the lawsuit. Uber had said it never knowingly broke the law.

"Uber fought tooth and nail at every point along the way," Maurice Blackburn Principal Michael Donelly said in a statement. "After years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked," he said.

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