Lyft driver files class action lawsuit over Uber's 'Hell' program
UPDATE: Aug. 31, 2017, 2:05 p.m. EDT The class action lawsuit against Uber was dismissed Thursday by the Northern District of California court.
Drivers aren't too happy with Uber — that's not news.
But one driver is taking advantage of a previously unknown business practice, reported by The Information, that made the life of Lyft drivers hell. The program, aptly codenamed "Hell," reportedly spied on Lyft drivers from 2014 to 2016, giving Uber an unfair advantage. Michael Gonzales filed a class action lawsuit against Uber in the Northern District of California court.
The lawsuit, spotted by The Information, can be read on the website of one of Gonzales's attorneys. Plaintiff Gonzales was employed as a driver for Lyft from 2012 until approximately November 2014.
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The software-based program would create fake Lyft rider accounts and then use information from those accounts to spy on actual Lyft drivers within the ecosystem. According to The Information, Uber could see up to eight of the nearby Lyft drivers. With multiple accounts, the program gave Uber something of a realtime map of its competition.
Uber was able "to track Lyft drivers’ locations over time ... Upon information and belief, Uber repeated this process millions of times using its sophisticated Hell spyware’s digital capabilities from 2014 through 2016," the lawsuit reads.
The program affected the business opportunities of Lyft drivers, the lawsuit continues.
"Uber accomplished this by incentivizing drivers working on both platforms to work primarily for Uber, thereby reducing the supply of Lyft drivers which resulted in increased wait times for Lyft customers and diminished earnings for Lyft drivers," the lawsuit reads.
Gonzales is suing Uber on four counts, including violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act and California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Uber did not have any comment on the lawsuit.
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
