Thousands of leaked documents and files reveal that the American (internet) taxi service Uber lobbied at the highest levels in dozens of countries and in the European Union to remove resistance against the alternative taxi service.
The UberFiles contain more than 124,000 internal documents, including memos, agendas, WhatsApp messages, and other data files from the period 2013-2017. These show, among other things, that the American founders tried in various ways to undermine their then-competitors and evade government regulations.
The data leak also sheds light on the contacts Uber maintained with top politicians such as Emmanuel Macron, in 2014 the then French Minister of Economy, and the Dutch former EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes. She secretly lobbied for Uber in 2015 and 2016, even after the European Commission explicitly forbade her from taking a position at the company.
Kroes continued to lobby informally after the rejection and received direct instructions from Uber’s management. For example, in 2015 she spoke with, among others, Prime Minister Rutte, the then VVD ministers Kamp and Schultz, State Secretary Mansveld of Infrastructure and the Environment, and Minister Dijsselbloem of Finance.
To advocate for more favorable taxi legislation for Uber, she tried to establish informal agreements with Henk Kamp, the then Minister of Economic Affairs, and sent WhatsApp messages to Prime Minister Mark Rutte that were dictated by one of Uber’s main lobbyists, according to the newspaper Trouw.
Kroes approached European officials, top civil servants, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on behalf of Uber. Smit at the time visited Uber’s headquarters in the US together with Rutte. The company aimed to influence taxi legislation and an (still ongoing) criminal investigation into Uber through Kroes.
Dutch Members of the European Parliament reacted with shock over the weekend to reports that the Dutch VVD politician knowingly ignored EU rules despite explicit warnings. There are even calls to withdraw her European pension scheme.