A federal jury in Phoenix, Arizona, ordered Uber to pay US$8.5 million to a passenger who claimed she was raped by a driver on the platform during a ride in 2023. The information is from The New York Times.
The decision, handed down on Thursday (5), represents a relevant test for the company’s legal strategy and comes amid more than 3,000 similar cases being processed in the United States.
The case was filed by a young woman who reported being raped in November 2023, when she was 19 years old, during a requested race in Tempe, Arizona. The jury rejected Uber’s main line of defense, according to which the company cannot be held responsible for the acts of drivers classified as independent service providers, and not as employees.
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Although the compensation amount was well below the US$144 million requested by the prosecution, the verdict is seen as a milestone as it is part of a set of pilot cases used to evaluate, before a jury, the consistency of the accusations against the company. These actions are part of federal litigation that brings together thousands of assault and sexual misconduct lawsuits involving Uber rides.
During the trial, Uber was accused of negligence in its security practices and failures in the application’s functioning. The jury, however, did not consider that the company’s conduct reached the level of “outrageous or oppressive”, which ruled out the application of more severe punitive damages.
Internal documents presented in the process indicated that Uber itself had classified the victim’s ride as a higher risk for a serious incident shortly before boarding, without alerting the passenger. A company executive stated in court that warnings of this type would be “impractical”.
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Company reaction and next steps
In a statement, Uber spokesperson Matt Kallman stated that the decision confirms that the company “acted responsibly” and invested in safety, but said that the company intends to appeal the verdict, alleging flaws in the instructions given to the jury.
The case occurs in a context of increasing pressure on Uber from legislators, investors and regulators, who demand greater accountability from the company given a history of reports of sexual violence involving drivers on the platform.
The judgment does not create an automatic obligation for other ongoing processes, but is seen as a relevant signal for future negotiations and the company’s legal strategy.
