Uber dodges £340M cabbie lawsuit after drivers miss legal deadline

Black cab drivers accused ride-hailing giant of misleading London's transport regulator, but judge says they left it too late to sue

Uber has dodged a £340 million lawsuit brought by thousands of London black cab drivers after a High Court judge ruled that they'd left it too late to sue.

Monday's ruling kills off two claims involving around 13,000 cabbies and former private hire companies Kabbee and Iride, which accused Uber of misleading Transport for London (TfL) to secure its operating license.

The cabbies wanted nearly £200 million in compensation for lost earnings, while Kabbee and Iride sought another £140 million. But the court never got as far as deciding whether Uber had done anything wrong.

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The claims were filed in May and June 2024, but Mr Justice Simon Birt ruled they were too late under the six-year time limit. The cabbies insisted that they hadn't had enough evidence to allege fraud until June 2018, but the judge wasn't buying it.

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According to the judgment, seen by The Register, three cabbies had already filed their own claims against Uber in September 2017. Litigation funder Harbour approached law firm Mishcon de Reya about a larger lawsuit that December, and by February 2018, the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association was telling members about the planned action.

The dispute dates back to Uber's arrival in London in 2012. The claimants alleged that the company deliberately misled TfL about how its booking system worked, allowing it to operate when it shouldn't have been permitted to do so.

Uber has some history here. In a separate licensing appeal in 2018, the company admitted that it gave TfL and the High Court false information about how bookings were accepted through its app. The magistrate stopped short of finding dishonesty, however, and granted Uber a new 15-month license.

The judgment also revisits Greyball, Uber's software for identifying suspected regulators, and Ripley, a tool used to remotely lock computers during regulatory visits. Uber maintained that Ripley hadn't been used that way in the UK.

The cabbies insisted that they needed information from the June 2018 licensing appeal to support their fraud allegations. Justice Birt disagreed, finding that enough information had been available earlier to bring a claim.

Things then went quiet. Mishcon sent Uber a letter before action in July 2019, but Harbour pulled its funding that November. The claimants didn't write to Uber again about the potential lawsuit for another four and a half years, according to the judgment, and by the time proceedings began in 2024, the deadline had passed.

The ruling is a victory for Uber, but doesn't clear it of the alleged fraud. The judge dismissed the claims because they were filed too late, without deciding whether the allegations, which Uber denies, were true.

Neither Uber nor RGL Management, the company representing the cabbies, responded to The Register’s questions. 

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London's taxi wars are far from over. Minicab Drivers are now pushing back against plans to bring robotaxis to the capital, warning that driverless cars could put thousands of jobs at risk.

Uber is working with British autonomous driving startup Wayve on driverless technology. Having spent years battling London's cabbies for passengers, it's now helping develop cars that won't need drivers at all. ®