The plaintiffs call the system a “black box”: according to them, it analyzes the driver’s behavior and on that basis sets an individual price for each trip.
The lawsuit claims that the same order can be offered to different drivers at different prices, and that payment for the return trip after a long ride may be underpaid. The algorithm, the complaint says, expects the driver to return anyway and agree to an unfavorable price.
The European Trade Union Confederation calls this the first such class action against Uber, and the plaintiffs believe the compensation could amount to billions of dollars.
A driver from Rotterdam, Mohammed Shirva, said that the system constantly takes into account what the driver is willing to accept, and because of that prices fall. Kola Oba from London said he was offered 23 pounds sterling for an order, while his colleague was offered 27 pounds sterling.
Uber said that such discrepancies are explained not by the history of a specific driver’s actions, but by other parameters — GPS data, dynamic pricing, promotions, and testing.
The lawsuit also says that Uber unlawfully uses automated decision-making, including profiling, when assigning pay and distributing orders, and uses drivers’ data to train its AI models without lawful grounds. The plaintiffs are seeking not only compensation, but also a court injunction against such practices, citing the GDPR.
According to the plaintiffs’ calculations, since 2023 dynamic pricing in the UK has reduced drivers’ annual income by about 5,000 pounds sterling. In the Netherlands, they say, such a system began operating this year, and the case was initiated by the organization Worker Info Exchange under the leadership of James Farrar, a lawyer who previously won a UK Supreme Court ruling recognizing Uber drivers as employees.
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