Uber Must Pay $59 Million And Give Data About Sexual Assaults, Or Cease Operations In California

California regulators want to fine Uber $59 million for failing to provide detailed information on sexual assault cases and harassment claims among its drivers and riders. If Uber does not provide the information and pay the fine within 30 days, regulators say it should be forced to stop operations in California, according to an order released Monday.

Uber has refused to provide the information for a year, saying it wants to protect victims’ privacy. Several victims’ advocate groups support its position, it said, pointing to letters the groups filed with regulators saying that even promising to keep the information under seal does not guarantee confidentiality.

Uber didn’t say what it will do in response to the order, only that it is examining next steps.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates ride-hailing, "has been insistent in its demands that we release the full names and contact information of sexual assault survivors without their consent," Uber said in a statement. "We opposed this shocking violation of privacy, alongside many victims’ rights advocates."

In a 92-page order issued Monday, Robert Mason, an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission, said Uber’s claims about violating privacy were "premature" since the information would be filed under seal. Mason found that Uber had "multiple continuous offenses" that violated several previous agency rulings on the issue.

Uber pushed back against the agency.

"Now, a year later, the CPUC has changed its tune: we can provide anonymized information -- yet we are also subject to a $59 million fine for not complying with the very order the CPUC has fundamentally altered," Uber said. "These punitive and confusing actions will do nothing to improve public safety and will only create a chilling effect as other companies consider releasing their own reports. Transparency should be encouraged, not punished."

Last December, Uber released an 84-page report that said it had received about 6,000 reports of sexual assault and harassment in the United States in 2017 and 2018, including 464 rapes. About a fifth of those, 1,243, were in California.

Regulators want to investigate those cases, so they asked Uber to describe each claim from 2017 to 2019, including names and contact information for witnesses, victims and Uber employees who received the reports.

Monday’s order said Uber should work with agency staff "to develop a code or numbering system as a substitute for the actual names and other personally identifiable information requested."

"Uber’s authority to operate as a (transportation network company) and as a (charter-party carrier) should be suspended if Uber fails to pay the $59,085,000.00 penalty by the deadline set forth," the order said.

That suspension would remain in effect until Uber paid the $59 million penalty plus accrued interest and provided the information requested, the order said. Without those licenses, Uber cannot operate as it currently does in the state.