Uber Files: ‘allies at the highest state level’ damning report by parliamentary commission of inquiry

Emmanuel Macron played a role in the creation of Uber in France. “The Uber Files,” this massive leak of internal documents from US company VTC exposed by Le Monde and France Info, showed how its leaders forged a close relationship with Emmanuel Macron, then economy minister from 2014 to 2016.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry, set up in November 2022, whose findings were published on Tuesday and made public by Franceinfo and Le Monde, confirms this information published in July 2022. Le Parisien provides an update on this case.

What are Uber Files?

It all started with the leak of 120,000 documents sent by Mark McGann, an Uber lobbyist in Europe from 2014 to 2016, to the British daily newspaper The Guardian. These documents, published by our colleagues at Le Monde and media outlets at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (CIJI) in the summer of 2022, show how Uber allegedly circumvented laws to impose itself on taxi drivers. They also claim that the company would have developed a close relationship with Emmanuel Macron when he was economy minister.

Mark McGann, 52, who is in charge of Europe, Africa and the Middle East markets, has played a key role in the ties that are denounced between the VTC platform and politicians. “I’ve talked to governments, I’ve promoted it in the media, I’ve told people they should change the rules because it will benefit drivers and people will get so many economic opportunities,” he said. told The Guardian.

“When it turned out that wasn’t the case – we were actually selling people lies – how can you find peace of mind if you don’t stand up and acknowledge your contribution to the way people are being treated today? “, he lamented.

What was the role of Emmanuel Macron?

The investigation concluded that there was a “secret deal” between the company and Emmanuel Macron when he was François Hollande’s economy minister. In 2014, Uber, seeking a foothold in France, faced government distrust. At the time, the VTC platform advertised its “UberPop” service, which was supposed to allow anyone to become a VTC driver without a license. The competition is recognized as unfair by taxi drivers.

A parliamentary report indicates that in October 2014, Emmanuel Macron met with four executives of an American company. Meetings, calls and texts…the exchanges went on for eighteen months, during which Uber would use the Minister’s influence every time the company ran into brakes.

In this “deal,” Macron offered a “drastic” simplification of the conditions required to obtain a VTC license in exchange for the suspension of the UberPop service. So, already in 2016, the government drastically reduced the training time for drivers from 250 to 7 hours. “Great manipulation operation,” criticizes the parliamentary report. These contacts would continue between 2018 and 2022.

Judging by the revelations, the head of state suggested that he met with Uber executives, saying that he was “super powerful”, insisting on “creating thousands of jobs.” “I especially helped young people who weren’t offered jobs, who came from difficult areas who didn’t have job opportunities, find jobs for the first time in their lives and thousands of them,” the president pleaded.

Mark McGann immediately dismisses the argument: “If you look at the facts on the streets of Paris and other cities, you will see that there is fierce competition between taxis and other modes of transport, such as Uber. There are so many people barely making a living that I don’t think there is much to be proud of,” said the former Uber Europe lobbyist.

What does the report say?

A parliamentary commission initiated by La France insoumise conducted an investigation for six months, interviewing a hundred people, including former ministers Bernard Cazeneuve and Manuel Valls. The findings, published on Franceinfo on Tuesday, are instructive: although it was illegal, “Uber has found allies at the highest levels of government… The intensity of contact between Uber, Emmanuel Macron and his cabinet is indicative of an opaque but privileged attitude, and shows the total inability of our system to measure and prevent private interests from influencing public decision-making.”

The report also reveals the existence of a “Kill Switch”, a device activated by software to wipe data from Uber computers in the event of a police raid. The SMS was also supposed to have been sent to Emmanuel Macron by an Uber representative during a search of the company’s premises.

Have the jobs promised by Emmanuel Macron been kept? No, according to the parliamentary commission. Asked by sociologist Sophie Bernard, she argued that Uber only moved already precarious workers to another type of equally precarious job, but would not lower unemployment rates. And this unreliability will now affect many platforms inspired by the same model.

However, the chairman of the commission of inquiry, Benjamin Haddad (deputy for the “Renaissance”) softens the conclusions of the report. According to him, “there was no connivance, no secret agreement, no concessions between the authorities and Uber.”

And now ?

LFI MP Rapporteur Daniel Simonnet is in favor of establishing a presumption of paid work for TVC drivers who enjoy independent status. In January 2023, the Lyon Labor Court ordered Uber to pay about 17 million euros in damages to 139 VTC drivers. The latter attacked a company in 2020 that refused to reclassify its self-employed status as an employment contract.

The elected official also advocates for the creation of an independent body-issued permit for platforms, provided they comply with all regulations. Lobbying should also be better regulated, in particular by publicizing meetings between government members, elected officials and representatives of interests.