After around two years, it seems that Uber has won the harsh battle with traditional cab drivers in London. A judge decided and ruled that the claim from more than 13,000 taxi drivers was time-barred, ending a case first filed in 2024. Uber emerged the winner.
The world’s number one ridesharing app has won the dismissal of around over $334 million lawsuit brought in behalf of black cab drivers in London after a judge ruled the claim actually missed the filing deadline, not because the cab drivers are in the wrong.
The judge, Simon Birt, handed down the ruling earlier this week, finding out that by February 2018, over six years before the first claim was issued, the drivers actually had access to the public information they neeed to push the case forward, hence the black cab drivers’ claims are time-barred, the judge pointed out.
What was this claim all about? It was first lodged in 2024 by around 13,000 black cab drivers in London, accusing Uber of wrongly securing its London operating license, and of illegally diverting the business away from these taxi operators, losing their income.
The representative for the claim, Mishcon de Reya, first informed Uber of this through a letter in 2019. However, after a litigation funder pulled out of the case, the firm stayed silent on the possible claim, sending Uber nothing further for four and a half years. Hence, the 2024 filing.
Uber stated it welcomed the court’s ruling to throw out each claim at the first chance, and that this ruling leaves the important matters behind it.
RGL Management Ltd., the company running the claim, stated that the cab drivers are “considering all options available to the claimant cab drivers with the legal team,” and it expressed disappointment with the decision.
The case added to a series of legal disputes for Uber in the British capital. The company prevailed twice, in 2017 and 2019, challenging the decision of Transport for London not to extend its license. It also needed to re-work the way its business operates once the British Supreme Court decided its drivers had to be treated as workers.
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