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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Business
Martin Farrer

How global media are covering the Uber law-breaking revelations

Uber’s ruthless tactics have been covered in an investigative series involving more than 40 media outlets worldwide
Uber’s ruthless tactics have been covered in an investigative series involving more than 40 media outlets worldwide. Illustration: Guardian Design

More than 180 journalists at 40 media outlets including the Guardian, Le Monde, the Washington Post and the BBC have collaborated on a series of investigative reports about how Uber’s ruthless tactics helped it to gain a foothold in crucial cities around the world.

The Guardian’s print edition and website front pages lead with the story under the headline “The Uber files: Leak reveals secret lobbying operation to conquer the world”, and report how the company “broke rules, duped police and put pressure on politicians to allow its regulation-busting service to flourish”.

The Washington Post leads its website on the investigation with the headline “Uber used covert tech to thwart government probes and advance its ambitions”. It goes on to detail how officials entered Uber’s offices in Amsterdam only to see computers “go dark before their eyes” thanks to the startup’s use of a so-called “kill switch” that disabled devices and blocked regulatory work.

The Washington Post’s coverage online

In Canada, the Toronto Star also reports on the “kill switch” and what is says was “driver exploitation”.

The story on the Toronto Star’s site

In Spain, El País runs the story on its front page with the headline “Una filtración masiva revela malas prácticas de Uber” (“A massive leak reveals Uber’s bad practices”).

Le Monde reports that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, struck a “secret deal” with Uber to pave the way for the company in France when he was economy minister.

The English-language Indian Express reports that Uber’s local boss told the team to “embrace the chaos” as they tried to establish the business, a theme that runs through much of the investigation.

Coverage in the Indian Express

Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on how Uber employed “wild west” methods to clear its way, but also relied on positive publicity about the company.

Süddeutsche Zeitung website screenshot

The Spanish television channel La Sexta highlights Uber’s tactic of bypassing regulators, or what it called the “pyramid of shit”, and instead engendering a sense of chaos in the cities where it wanted to launch.

The Belgian paper De Tijd says the files have exposed what it calls Uber’s “dark practices” as it “pulled out all the stops” to get a foothold in the country, including allegedly employing private detectives to spy on “competitors in Brussels, infiltrating mystery shoppers who worked for the government, and sabotaging a house search by the courts”.

Direkt36 tells how Uber was facing some government pushback against its nascent operation in Hungary so began to search for a lobbyist who could “open doors” in Viktor Orbán’s administration. However, despite engineering a meeting with a minister, the engagement was cancelled and Uber finally withdrew from what it called a “shitshow” in the Hungarian market.

In Colombia, El Diario says Uber “carried out ethically questionable practices to position itself in the main cities of the world”, according to the leaked documents.

The Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht promotes its coverage at the top of its website and says the Uber files reveal the “behind-the-scenes” story of the company’s Estonian lobby operation.

Estonia’s Eesti Päevaleht online
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