Lawsuit Alleges Thousands of Women Raped by Uber Drivers

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Summary: A lawsuit alleges Uber drivers sexually assaulted thousands of female passengers. 

Two women filed a class-action seeking lawsuit in San Francisco against Uber on Tuesday. They claim that the ride-hailing service allowed “thousands” of women to be raped or harassed by their drivers, due to poor background checks and lack of monitoring.

  

What

Where

Search Jobs

“The company must come forward with information about how many reports it has received about rapes, sexual assaults, and gender-motivated harassment to allow consumers to assess whether Uber really does provide safe rides, especially to women,” Jeanne M. Christensen, an attorney with Wigdor LLP, said. Christensen’s firm is representing plaintiffs Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

The plaintiffs live in Miami and Los Angeles, and both say that they were sexually assaulted by Uber drivers, according to ABC News. In their lawsuit, they said that Uber performs low-quality background checks on drivers and does not monitor them for “violent or inappropriate conduct after they are hired.”

In the complaint, the women said that even after being notified, Uber did “nothing meaningful” to prevent sexual violence against its female passengers. Uber told ABC News that they were reviewing the lawsuit and that the company takes these claims seriously.

“Uber received this complaint today and we are in the process of reviewing it,” the spokesperson said. “These allegations are important to us and we take them very seriously.”

Earlier this month, Uber said that it was implementing a new initiative to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault. One component of this initiative is providing drivers with training from the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Before the lawsuit, the company also announced that it was spending $5 million over five years to research “prevention initiatives” for domestic violence and sexual assault.

“We will continue to listen, learn, collaborate and build on our commitment to prevent sexual assault and domestic violence,” Uber stated.

The accusations in the recent lawsuit are similar to one filed by a woman in India, USA Today said. The woman said that Uber tried to obtain her medical records to discredit her after she claimed an Uber driver raped her.

Tuesday’s lawsuit said that Uber does not require fingerprint checks like cab companies do and that the multi-billion dollar tech company needs to make “drastic changes” to its business model in order to protect its passengers.

According to USA Today, Wigdor LLP, which is representing the plaintiffs, has also filed lawsuits against Uber and Fox News for gender discrimination or harassment.

• Uber’s Legal Troubles May Never End 
• Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Fights Back against Benchmark Lawsuit
• Judge Sends Benchmark’s Lawsuit against Former Uber CEO to Arbitration
• Disability Groups Claim Uber Is Discriminating against Them

What do you think of Uber? Let us know in the comments below.