Uber has won its bid to throw out £200m of black cab claims, which argued the company misled Transport for London about its licence. The claims were dismissed because they were brought too late. Nobody has yet explained what happens to the misleading part.
The ruling is a clean legal victory. The public-safety question, whether a ride-hailing giant lied to the regulator that keeps passengers safe, has been filed under ‘stale.’ A calendar has beaten a conscience, and the calendar did not even have to show up for work.
Imagine the complaints department at a London taxi firm. A driver walks in holding a stack of evidence. The receptionist checks the date, shrugs, and points to a sign: ‘Grievances accepted until Tuesday, after which they become Uber’s problem.’
Is this how justice works now? Apparently it is, provided the offence is old enough to have gone stale in the fridge.
Uber is reportedly drafting a press release for the ‘Too Late’ feature. It will let complainants submit concerns about the company, then receive a notification informing them that the window closed in 2019. Early testers say it works beautifully. Nobody has been able to file a complaint about it yet.