Latest Sharing Economy Headlines
All the headlines from our Sharing Economy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Labor Unions Searching for Strategies to Join the Gig Economy
May 24 2016 // The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers trumpeted an agreement reached earlier this month to represent New York Uber drivers, saying it “gives organized labor an opportunity to shape the new...
Pennsylvania Regulator Offers Consumer Tips for Airbnb Users
May 23 2016 // Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller is offering consumer tips for both guests and hosts of home sharing sites like Airbnb, as use of these sites may rise in Pennsylvania with the state hosting two major...
Declarations
May 23 2016 // Campus Guns “College campuses as gun-free zones present an environment where murderers, rapists and other criminals may commit crimes without fear of being harmed by their victims.” —An NRA lobbyist who...
Business Travel Fuels Growth of Uber Use in Arkansas
May 20 2016 // Business travelers needing a ride in Arkansas are increasingly using their thumbs — not to hitchhike, but to tap the Uber app on their smartphones. And despite class-action lawsuits by drivers and some job actions,...
Suit Against Airbnb Alleges Racial Discrimination in Housing Rentals
May 20 2016 // Airbnb Inc. was accused in a civil rights lawsuit of ignoring a Virginia man who said a host with the online room rental company had rejected his reservation request because he’s black. Gregory Selden, 25, sued in...
Austin Riders Look to Craigslist after Exit of Uber and Lyft
May 19 2016 // After a car wreck last year put Akhila Sivakumar in the hospital for more than a month and left her with burns and bruises across her body, she was hesitant to drive again. So when the 22-year-old began to look for jobs...
Uber Driver First Named to Lead Suit Opposes $100M Settlement
May 18 2016 // The driver originally named to lead a class-action lawsuit over pay and benefits against Uber Technologies Inc. is opposing the rideshare company’s $100 million settlement, saying he was duped by the drivers’...
Did Uber Driver Settlement Lawyer Win at Expense of Drivers?
May 16 2016 // The lawyer who struck a $100 million deal with Uber Technologies Inc. is being accused of greed by some of the drivers covered by the accord who want her bumped. “She has single-handedly stuck a knife in the back of...
Uber Tells Judge Not to Trust Cab Companies in Battle Over Safety
May 13 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc. fired back at taxi operators accusing it of lying about superior safety, telling a judge the cab companies “fabricated” a customer endorsement with a photo of MySpace’s co-founder...
Lyft Raises Offer to Drivers to $27M in Contractors V. Employees Suit
May 12 2016 // Lyft Inc. raised its proposed payout to 163,000 California drivers to $27 million in their lawsuit to be treated as employees rather than contractors. The revised settlement comes after a San Francisco federal judge...
Uber, Lyft Suspend Service in Texas Capital Because of Background Checks
May 11 2016 // Uber and Lyft have suspended ridesharing service in Austin, Texas after voters decided against overturning city requirements that include fingerprint-based background checks for their drivers. Nearly 56 percent of voters...
Background Checks For Uber, Lyft Drivers Established in Iowa
May 11 2016 // Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has signed a bill into law that creates new statewide rules for ridesharing companies such as Uber and Uber to do business in Iowa. Branstad signed the bill this week following approval this...
Uber to Start Guild for 35K Drivers in New York City
May 11 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to start a guild for 35,000 drivers in New York that will help them negotiate with the ride-hailing company, though the group will have less power to resolve disputes than a full-fledged...
Voters in Texas Capital Keep Fingerprinting for Rideshare Drivers
May 10 2016 // Fingerprinting drivers for ride-hailing companies must continue in Texas’ capital city after voters rejected a $9 million campaign by Uber and Lyft to overturn the safety measure. Both Uber and Lyft threatened to...
Uber Drivers’ Unpaid Mileage Expenses Total $730 Million, Lawyers Claim
May 9 2016 // Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Uber in California and Massachusetts over the past seven years would have been entitled to an estimated $730 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than...
Pennsylvania Officials: $11M Fine Against Uber Could Stunt Tech Growth
May 9 2016 // Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh-area officials want the state’s regulators to greatly reduce their record-setting $11.4 million fine against ride-sharing company Uber. The Public Utility Commission fined...
New Orleans Uber Drivers Let Riders Hail Illegally on Street, Say Cabbies
May 6 2016 // New Orleans taxi drivers say competitors with ridesharing service Uber illegally let passengers hail them on the street. In papers filed this week in Orleans Parish Civil District Court,The Times-Picayune reported that 26...
Judge Rejects Uber’s Independent Contractors Claim in Sex Attacks Suit
May 5 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc.’s denial of responsibility for sexual assaults by drivers failed to derail a lawsuit brought by two women who say they were attacked last year. A San Francisco federal judge on Wednesday...
Uber Settles with Blind Riders over Service Animals
May 2 2016 // Uber and advocates for the blind have reached a lawsuit settlement in which the ridesharing company agrees to require that existing and new drivers confirm they understand their legal obligations to transport riders with...
French Startup Drivy (‘Airbnb for Cars’) Raises $35M to Expand; Insured by Allianz
Apr 28 2016 // Drivy, a French startup that lets people hire out their cars in much the same way Airbnb runs a market for houses, said Thursday it raised 31 million euros ($35 million) to fund its continued expansion across...
