Uber expensive law suit

UBER will be hit with a $500 million class action law suit from angry Melbourne cab drivers who claim the company stole their livelihoods.

The case, which has already received $20 million in legal funding, will be filed within weeks.

Cab and private hire car drivers will sue for lost earnings during the time that Uber operated in Melbourne before it was legalised. They will also sue for damages.

Rod Barton, president of the Commercial Passenger Vehicles Association of Australia, said cab drivers were “absolutely filthy about what has been done to them. They had a right to be protected by the law.

“We are very confident that we have got a case given the amount of work that has been done. We’re about to file, it is within the coming week, it’s very, very close.”

Mr Barton said the case, if successful, would eclipse the $500 million paid to victims of the Black Saturday bushfires by power company SP Ausnet.

British law suit funder Harbour Litigation Funding was backing the case, with similar actions set for Canada.

Maurice Blackburn, which ran the Black Saturday class action, will be in control of the Victorian challenge.

Uber, the San Francisco based ride-sharing service worth up to $US120 billion on valuations this month, landed in Australia in November 2012.

The company rapidly became a force in the transport industry as consumers downloaded its app. But the service was operating illegally in Victoria until the Andrews Government reached a deal in August last year.

Uber’s arrival slashed the value of taxi licences, which peaked at $500,000 in 2010 and can now be bought for $55 under the deal last year.

There were 5600 cabs on the road before the deal, but now there are 10,500 on the road, Mr Barton said.

Registered private hire cars, which includes Uber, jumped from 2800 in 2016 to 35,000 once the ride-sharing service was legalised.

Andrew Watson, Maurice Blackburn’s national head of class actions, said the case against Uber for “operating unlawfully here in Victoria will go ahead”.

“We are in the final stages of refining our pleadings and they will be filed in the Victorian Supreme Court soon,” he said.

“The damage Uber caused to thousands of legally operating ride service providers was enormous and it is our view Uber should be responsible for the impact of what we allege was their unlawful conduct.”