Following lawsuit and embarrassing viral video, Uber hit with DOJ investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced a criminal investigation involving Uber, which reportedly used software developed by the ride-hailing service that identified and blocked regulators posing as potential customers in municipalities where the service was illegal.
Known as “Greyball,” the software was used in Portland, Oregon, prior to April 2015, when the city adopted rules that allowed services like Uber, the Washington Post reports. Users identified as law enforcement got fake versions of the app, the New York Times reports.
The city of Portland received the inquiry from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, according to the Times. Uber declined to comment about the investigation. It told the Times in March that it no longer uses the software.
The privately held company, which the Post valued at $70 billion, has faced several problems since February. That month, a female engineer in a blog post asserted that the company’s human resources department retaliated against her after she complained about workplace sexual harassment, and the company hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate her accusation.
That same month, Google filed a lawsuit alleging trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement and unfair competition against Uber. According to the federal complaint (PDF) filed in San Francisco, Uber and a former Google employee stole 14,000 documents related to Google’s self-driving car technology, known as Waymo.
Also in February, Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and chief executive, was videotaped in a verbal confrontation with an Uber driver, who complained about the company’s wages after bringing Kalanick and another passenger to a destination. Kalanick later apologized.
“This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it,” he wrote in a post on Uber’s website.
