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Uber CEO Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Price Fixing (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will go to court over price fixing claims after he initially tried to get the lawsuit dismissed. U.S. district court judge in New York ruled Kalanick has to face the class of passengers alleging that he conspired with drivers to set fares using an algorithm, including hiking rates during peak hours with so-called surge pricing. According to Reuters, district court judge Jed Rakoff ruled the plaintiffs "plausibly alleged a conspiracy" to fix pricing and that the class action could also pursue claims the set rates led to the demise [of] other services, like Sidecar.
Do taxi drivers have the capability to set their own rates, or are all the ones working for the same company colluding and charging the same rate?
Neither. The prices are fixed by law. Price fixing is not illegal if the government does it.
Perhaps the real purpose of this lawsuit is to put Uber into the position of recognizing that its drivers are not "independent contractors".
Uber is probably going to attempt some kind of "Schrodinger's driver", where the drivers are simultaneously both contractors and employees.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!