The ride-hailing company Uber has been fined to the tune of $59 million to be paid to California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), an administrative judge ruled on Monday. The fine was levied over Uber’s refusal to hand over data pertaining its 2019 sexual assault report to the California Public Utilities Commission.

As ruled by a judge, Uber must pay the fine within 30 days and hand over the requested data or risk having its license to operate within California revoked. 

The fine originates from the CPUC’s demand for Uber to turn over additional data after the company issued a report last December that noted it had received 3,045 reports of sexual assault cases during the use of its services in the US in the whole of 2018. 

After Uber released the report, notably after high public pressure, the California Public Utilities Commission demanded more information from the company, including the names and contact information of all authors of the safety report, Uber personnel to which each case was reported to, and witnesses to the alleged assaults (including victims).

Uber challenged the CPUC’s demand, arguing that the data would get into the hands of “untrained individuals” if turned over and that the CPUC hadn’t demanded similar data from other ride-hailing services.

Now, Uber’s challenge appears to have landed it a ruling to pay a fine of $59.1 million and also hand over the requested data. With threats of revoking its license, it seems Uber may cave into the demands of the CPUC. 

In a statement, Uber asserted that these “punitive and confusing actions [pertaining to its fine and order to turn over data] 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.”

Photo: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi by Hubert Burda Media is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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