‘Uber hasn’t changed,’ whistleblower says

Uber went all in to break the French taxi sector, all the while dodging taxes and keeping drivers in high levels of precarity Mark MacGann, the Uber Files whistleblower, alleged in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV France, adding that little has changed. 

You can find the original interview in French here.

MacGann was Uber’s Head of Public Policy for Europe and then Senior Board Advisor between 2014 and 2016, a time during which he witnessed what he considers corporate wrongdoings at the highest levels of public office.

In 2022, he leaked over 120,000 internal documents from Uber to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The Guardian, shedding light on corporate malpractice and shady lobbying.

Uber might have made cosmetic changes to the way it is run, but that amounts to “putting lipstick on a pig”, MacGann argued.

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No, Uber hasn’t changed

MacGann added that while former CEO Travis Kalanick has left, and practices like “kill switches” that would shut down server access when public authorities entered Uber premises and “greyball” that deny public officials suspected of working against Uber from using the platform workers’are no more, there are still issues.

“Nothing of substance” appears to have changed in the way the company is run today in terms of how drivers are treated,” MacGann told EURACTIV, and nothing has changed in terms of “how lobbying practices are regulated in France and the EU.”

But Uber’s efforts to try to block reforms, such as the EU directive, or trying to dilute their scope are still “very real”, he added. In the end, “a leopard never changes its spots”.

The same goes for fiscal malpractice: the leaked data allegedly shows Uber lied to French tax authorities in a real effort to dodge corporate taxation and reroute all profits to the Netherlands.

“Uber actively misled national authorities and engaged in questionable practices to avoid paying local taxes”, the former lobbyist said.

Uber, on the other hand, claims its culture and strategy changed radically, after years of “mistakes”, which led to “one of the most infamous reckonings in the history of corporate America”, according to a press statement released after the Uber Files revelations.

“We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values”, the press release read.

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No actual jobs, no returns to the Exchequer

MacGann tells the story of Uber’s success in three separate steps. First, rides are heavily subsidised, using investors’ money to “lure” drivers and push prices down.

Then the commission that Uber gets on every cab ride starts to increase, from 10% originally to 25% today, according to MacGann.

The final nail in the coffin is Uber’s willingness to impoverish drivers by expecting them to pay VAT on 100% of their pre-commission earnings before paying for the car loan, petrol and insurance.

“This is pure and unbridled capitalism, one that does not create genuine jobs or any actual returns for the Exchequer,” he added.

Fighting tooth and nail against reclassification

For MacGann, the EU directive on platform workers is set to provide better support for drivers since, in its original form, it would introduce an EU-wide legal presumption of employment that could turn the tide on platform workers’ employment status.

The directive is meant to protect ‘gig economy’ workers like Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders from employment relations where they are expected to comply with employee requirements while having a self-employed contract.

The EU proposal also enshrines safeguard and transparency measures for workers whose work is organised via automated decision-making, so-called algorithmic management.

The European Parliament adopted its legal report in early February. Still, negotiations are stuck within the EU Council of Ministers, where European governs are split between stricter workers’ protection and allowing more flexibility on employment status.

Uber is fighting nail and tooth against any form of reclassification if only because it would risk tanking the company’s economic viability, its former official told EURACTIV.

MacGann stressed that Uber’s business model is rooted in self-employment and could not function any other way.

“They’d rather fight isolated court cases”, even if they have to pay, rather than revamp their entire approach to workers’ employment status, he added.

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“France, seriously?”

Uber Files revelations looked specifically to France. Leaked documents brought evidence of a very tight relationship between Emmanuel Macron, Economy minister at the time, and then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

“Everybody wanted to support Uber” in the early 2010s, MacGann said. It was a controversial company, but it was ‘sexy’ and could serve to shake up the taxi monopoly that existed in France.

Macron took a somewhat different stance than the rest of the government he was a part of, who were much more sceptic over Uber’s services and sought to level the playing field with taxis by making a 250-hour training compulsory for all drivers.

“Requiring 250 hours’ worth of work was bullocks, but again, so were Uber’s demands that there be no regulation over who can drive a cab, given a person had a clean driving licence and criminal record,” the former lobbyist sighed.

Fast forward to 2023, and France is adamantly critical of the EU Directive as it stands. EURACTIV revealed in September how French officials had actively lobbied the European Commission behind the scene against the legal presumption.

“France, seriously? After such a long history of workers’ protection?” the whistleblower asked.

For MacGann, the gig economy has betrayed its original promise of informally connecting supply and demand to become a tool for exploiting workers. Thus, he implores the French government to be ‘intellectually honest’ and turn its position around on the EU Directive.

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[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Alice Taylor]