The American company Uber managed to penetrate the main cities around the world thanks to a strategy that went through breaking laws, deceiving and lobbying in the highest spheres, according to a leak from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The more than 124,000 documents that make up the Uber Files expose ethically questionable practices of the company then directed by Travis Kalanick and who went through courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media moguls.
The leaked documents they are dated between 2013 and 2017 and include communications from Kalanick himself with his managers. One of them acknowledges that they behave like “pirates” and in another leaked document it says that “We’re just fucking illegal.”
Hay 40 countries affected by the documents gathered by the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’, which has shared them with 180 journalists from 29 countries.
In response, from Uber they have indicated that “we have not made and will not make excuses for past behaviors that are clearly not consistent with our current values.” “We ask that they judge us for what we have done in the last five years and what we will do in the next few years,” he stressed.
“Violence guarantees success”
Kalanick himself rejects in one of the communications with his executives the reluctance to send drivers to a demonstration of taxi drivers despite the risk of violence. “I think it’s worth. Violence guarantees success“, said.
A spokesman for Kalanick has stressed that “he never suggested that Uber should take advantage of the violence at the expense of driver safety.” Any suggestion that he did such a thing would be totally untrue.
In the documents there is a conversation between Kalanick and the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, which reveals that helped the company secretly to penetrate France facilitating access to high officials. Macron even mentions that the company had a secret “agreement” with its rivals within the French government.
Other politicians who were not so receptive were clearly despised by Uber executives, according to these communications. Thus, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, demanded an increase in drivers’ wages when he was mayor of Hamburg. “He is a real clown”, commented the leaders of the company.
Until now the US president, Joe Biden, was despised by Kalanick, who commented regarding a planned meeting between the two at the World Economic Forum in Davos that “I have told my people to tell him that every minute that you are late is one minute less that you will be with me“. Then Biden was the vice president of Barack Obama and one of the strongest defenders of the company.
The business model involved services that were economically unsustainable but that allowed them to control the market in cities around the world, from Moscow to Johannesburg, and put pressure on the authorities so that their application could be used.
In many cities they were successful, but in others their penetration was not as wide and the offensive was redoubled. “It is a normal part of Uber’s business (…). Embrace the chaos. you are doing something important“, Kalanick argued about the entry into India.
In countries like Belgium, Spain, Italy or France, the conflict reached the streets with serious protests by taxi drivers. In Paris, the company encouraged Uber drivers to participate in counter-demonstrations and civil disobedience actions.
When Kalanick was warned of the risk of a response from “extreme right-wing thugs” and that he was “fueling a fight,” This one said “it’s worth it”. “Violence guarantees success and you have to face these guys, right?” This strategy is in accordance with the proposal of another document in which it is proposed to “use drivers as a weapon” and take advantage of the violence they would suffer “to feed the fire of controversy.”
All this responded to a script that was applied in Italy, Belgium, Spain or Switzerland, according to leaked emails. When hooded men believed to be taxi drivers attacked Uber drivers with hammers in Amsterdam in 2015, the company won concessions from authorities.
Drivers were encouraged to report to the police. “They will be front page tomorrow. We continue for a few more days with the discourse of violence and then, the solution” in front of the taxi “cartel”, says one of the texts.
“We are not legal in many countries. We should avoid making controversial statements,” recognized one of the managers. “We have officially become pirates.”said another.