Uber accepts $178M Australia taxi lawsuit settlement

Uber has consented to pay A$271.8 million ($178 million) to resolve a lawsuit filed by drivers and taxi companies in Australia.

As the ride-hailing company entered the nation, Australian taxi drivers and operators claimed they lost money, according to a law firm's Monday statement.

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers released a statement stating that the settlement is the fifth-largest in Australia.

Over 8,000 taxi and hire car owners and drivers filed a class action lawsuit against Uber in 2019 in the Supreme Court of Victoria State, claiming the company had broken licensing regulations.

According to the lawsuit, licensed taxi drivers lost out on income when Uber entered the market in 2012 and destroyed the value of their licenses.

Uber had declared that it never intentionally broke the law.

Michael Donelly, principal of Maurice Blackburn, stated in a statement that Uber battled valiantly at every stage of the process. He said that Uber has now blinked after years of not doing the right thing by the people they allegedly hurt.

With Monday's proposed settlement, an Uber representative stated in an email that the company had firmly put these legacy issues in the past and that Uber had been a contributor to state-level taxi compensation schemes since 2018.

Uber's response omitted any mention of the proposed settlement.

Rod Barton, a class action participant and former lawmaker, said the settlement supported his suspicion that Uber had purposefully circumvented the nation's laws governing taxi licensing.