A U.S. appeals court on Monday dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit that accused Uber Technologies of utilizing a discriminatory star rating system that unfairly terminated individuals who are not white or who speak with accents.
An Alleged Racial Bias
Plaintiff Thomas Liu, described as Asian and from Hawaii with a slight accent, asserted he observed riders canceling ride requests after seeing his picture on booking acceptance and also encountered riders asking about his origin in a hostile manner. According to the lawsuit, Liu was terminated in October 2015 when his average star rating droppedbelow 4.6.
The lawsuit aims to represent all minority Uber drivers who have been banned due to low star ratings in the app and requests the court to mandate Uber to stop using passenger evaluations as criteria for such.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for Liu, argued in the lawsuit that Uber's reliance on this system for driver terminations amounts to racial discrimination, citing widespread acknowledgment that customer evaluations of workers often exhibit racial bias. Uber itself has acknowledged the racial bias among its customers.
Uber's Denial of The Allegations
According to Uber, each rider is prompted to rate their driver on a scale from one to five to enhance ride safety and identify drivers who may pose issues. The company disputes this claim as flimsy, asserting that ride-sharing has significantly reduced bias for drivers and riders, offering fairer and more equitable access to work and transportation than ever before.
While an Uber spokesperson declined to discuss how passenger star ratings contribute to driver terminations, the spokesperson noted that Uber requests additional information to assess whether bias influenced the rating when riders give a low rating, NPR reported.
The Dismissal of The Lawsuit
Liu's legal team contended that statistical evidence supporting their claims could only be obtained during discovery, where plaintiffs can request documents and testimonies from defendants. Still, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court ruled that Liu did not present anything beyond speculation to support his argument that neither Uber's system is discriminatory nor disproportionately removed non-white drivers from its platform compared to white drivers with low ratings.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted Uber's motion to dismiss the case in 2022, citing a lack of a credible claim of statistical disparity among drivers of various races and had the survey conducted by Liu's lawyers flawed.
Liss-Riordan expressed disappointment regarding the ruling, arguing that Uber's use of the rating system violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California anti-discrimination laws and intends to seek reconsideration from the court.
Liu was backed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before filing the federal lawsuit. The EEOC cited research indicating that customer ratings, including those for Uber drivers and other gig workers, can be influenced by bias. The agency asserted in a friend-of-the-court brief that this, along with the survey conducted by Liu's lawyers, provided sufficient grounds to establish a plausible case.
However, the case was dismissed in August after failing to reach a determination, permitting him to pursue the claim in court. On Monday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this decision, highlighting that the survey failed to address the racial demographics of Uber's overall driver population.
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