Summary: The recent ruling from a judge classifies Uber as a transportation company, making a text-spamming lawsuit against them lose credibility.
Uber’s attempts at being considered a technology company are failing. For the second time so far this year, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that Uber Technologies Inc. is a transportation company. Uber has been trying to claim that they are solely a technology company in the software business that links drivers to customers.
Uber had hoped this argument would save them from employment litigation and regulation problems. However, two judges have ruled that Uber sells transportation services not software so their argument is flawed. Northern District Judge Edward Chen used the example that “Uber’s use of an app and software made it not of a technology company than Yellow Cab’s use of BCB radios.”
The current case is a text-spamming suit against Uber by four plaintiffs that started filing out applications online to become Uber drivers but did not finish. The plaintiffs were then blasted with unsolicited texts. Uber claims that texts are recruiting not telemarketing materials so written consent is not needed. While the ruling as a transportation company helps Uber with this case, it is not a win yet.
The plaintiffs’ attorney Hassan Zavareei used the reasoning that Uber cannot refer to their drivers as software customers in one legal case and recruits in another. Uber confessed in the earlier employment lawsuit that their texts were employment offers, going against their claim that they are for recruiting.
The judge called their texts an attempt to recruit potential drivers that could eventually provide rides to customers, not an attempt to promote the software program.