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Uber Faces $410 Million Canadian Class Action Suit
farrellj writes: A class action suit has been filed by the Taxi and Limo drivers and owners in the Province of Ontario in Canada against Uber, demanding CAN$400 million in compensatory damages, $10 million in punitive damages. They claim Uber is violating the Ontario Highway Traffic Act that covers taxis and limos, and has caused them to lose money. They also seek an injunction against Uber operating in Ontario. "This protectionist suit is without merit," Uber said in a statement. "As we saw from a recent court ruling in Ontario, Uber is operating legally and is a business model distinct from traditional taxi services."
This is one of the more insightful bits of investigative journalism I've read in a long time:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com...
Some quotes:
[...] one of the most compelling investigative projects ... in the Toronto taxicabs that I rode in so often on my way to assignments. I discovered that almost none of Torontoâ(TM)s city-issued taxi licenses â" known as âoeplatesâ â" were in the hands of working cab drivers. Instead, they were held by people who made others pay to use them.
[Taxi] plate holders included an airline pilot, a dentist, investors who lived in Florida and Israel, and estates that had inherited the licenses after the holder died. The problems created by the plate system were mind-boggling. At least 30 per cent of the industryâ(TM)s revenues went to people who did nothing but milk income from their licenses.
So the Toronto Taxi system is a cesspool of entitled leeches, and Uber â" which nonetheless seems to have a shady side to it â" seems to be doing some overdue jostling. Hence the ridiculous class action.
If corporations are people and money is speech, then Uber could be a modern day Martin Luther King.
We also have laws against just randomly shooting your neighbors. Either you respect that some laws exist for good reasons or you chuck them all and live in anarchy. A corporation is not a person. A corporation only wants laws relaxed so they can maximize profits, not because of any moral reason.
The truth is that the laws over taxi services have been built over decades to try to balance the needs of businesses with protection of the customer. Uber only wants to skirt those laws because meeting them would cut into their profits, not because of some great liberation of the people.
I swear, some of you capitalism apologists won't be happy until corporations are back to selling toys with razor sharp edges that catch fire as soon as they're unpacked, food "bulked up" with rat droppings and rope, whatever it takes as long as profits aren't harmed.