Latest Sharing Economy Headlines
All the headlines from our Sharing Economy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Uber Must Show London Regulator Its Drivers Are Insured, Trained, for License Renewal
Sep 25 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. has been granted a two-month license to operate in London as the ride-hailing app makes stuttering progress in winning over the city’s regulator. Transport for London had previously declined to...
Specialty Lines Insurance: Innovating at the Edges of Society and the Economy
Sep 17 2019 // Emerging risks with little or no claims history can be notoriously difficult to underwrite—but many specialty lines companies are finding ways to put their toes in the water to insure these new risks, especially when...
Arch Nemesis of Uber over Driver Pay Sues Before New California Law Inked
Sep 13 2019 // It didn’t take long for attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan to deploy a new weapon in her six-year war with Uber Technologies Inc. over driver pay. Within hours of Uber thumbing its nose at a pending California labor law...
Uber Being Sued Over Resistance to California ‘Gig’ Contractor Law
Sep 13 2019 // A driver for Uber has sued the company for misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors, hours after California legislators voted to help thousands of those workers become, and enjoy the benefits of being,...
Uber Refusing to Label Drivers as Employees Under California Law
Sep 12 2019 // Facing the most serious threat yet to its business model, Uber Technologies Inc. is dusting off a legal argument it has employed with mixed results: that it’s a technology platform, not a transportation company. Now,...
California Truckers Worrying over New ‘Gig Worker’ Rules
Sep 12 2019 // California trucking companies that haul everything from summer strawberries to cars and Christmas toys say they are under threat from a bill that could turn so-called gig workers into employees. California state Senators...
Bill to Tighten “Gig” Worker Rule Passed by California Senate
Sep 11 2019 // The California State Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that would make it much more difficult for gig economy companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. to classify workers as independent contractors rather...
Uber, Lyft Balk at Revealing Contracted Drivers’ Names; Claim ‘Trade Secrets’
Sep 4 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have argued to Chicago city officials that the names of their drivers should be treated as “trade secrets,” and should not be released because competitors could use the...
Uber, Lyft Pledge $60M to Fight Possible California Labor Ballot
Aug 30 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are putting $60 million behind a potential ballot measure to ensure they don’t have to reclassify their California drivers as employees. The ride-hailing giants and other gig...
Former Google Engineer Charged in Uber Autonomous Theft Case
Aug 29 2019 // A former Google engineer was charged Tuesday with stealing self-driving car technology from the company shortly before he joined Uber’s efforts to catch up in the high-stakes race to build robotic vehicles. The...
Airbnb Settles Racial Discrimination Suit Brought by Oregon Women
Aug 19 2019 // Airbnb has settled a lawsuit brought by several Oregon women who said the site allowed vacation rental owners to discriminate against customers based on race. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports African American plaintiffs...
Female Customers Sue Lyft Alleging Sexual Assaults by Drivers
Aug 13 2019 // Lyft Inc.’s image as the “woke” ride-hailing company faces a new challenge from a rash of lawsuits filed by women who claim they were sexually assaulted by drivers summoned to take them home after...
Rideshare Driver Suspected of Raping Passenger Near San Francisco
Aug 13 2019 // Police have arrested a Lyft driver on suspicion of raping a female passenger in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Bruno police say the 25-year-old victim told investigators she scheduled the ride early Saturday while...
Union Not Siding with Rideshare Operators on California Labor Law
Jul 26 2019 // Uber and Lyft suffered a setback in their months-long fight against rules that could force them to reclassify California drivers as employees. The ridesharing companies, along with other businesses that depend on...
Lyft Vows to Make Driverless Data Public
Jul 25 2019 // Lyft Inc. is making research data on self-driving technology available to the public in a bid to accelerate the development of robotic cars, which is seen as critical to the ride-hailing giant’s future...
London’s Uber Drivers Sue City’s Mayor for ‘Discriminatory’ New Levy
Jul 12 2019 // London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to charge Uber Technologies Inc. drivers to operate in the city center amounts to racial discrimination and puts some out of business, lawyers for the drivers said Wednesday in...
Ridehailing Blamed for Rise in Traffic Congestion, Deaths
Jul 9 2019 // Blame Uber. While the era of app-based ridehailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, has been credited with everything from keeping impaired drivers off the road to increasing job opportunities to adding new levels of...
Paying Gig Workers Emerges as ‘Getaround’ Tactic to Defeat Employee Lawsuits
Jul 2 2019 // The perennial issue in the gig economy is whether workers should be classified as employees. Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and other companies that rely on contract work have dealt with this question in a number of...
North Carolina House Approves Safety Rules for Ridesharing Companies
Jul 1 2019 // New rules for drivers of ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft operating in North Carolina have cleared the state House. The bill approved unanimously on Thursday is considered a safety measure following the March death...
New York City Uber Driver Gets Three Years for Kidnapping Sleeping Passenger
Jun 26 2019 // A man who drove for Uber in New York City has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for abducting a woman who fell asleep inside his vehicle. A judge Monday also ordered Harbir Parmar to pay more than $3,600 in...
