Australian taxi drivers’ A$272m payout after class action against Uber: Could it happen in NZ?

Australian drivers have won a multi-million dollar suit against Uber. Photo / Getty Images

Uber has agreed to pay A$271.8 million ($287.7m) to settle a class action lawsuit brought by some 8000 Australian taxi drivers, according to a lawyer representing the drivers - Michael Donelly of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, who said the Supreme Court of Victoria would formally announce the deal later today.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleged Uber harmed the drivers financially by setting up and running its UberX services in Australia illegally.

It is the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australian legal history, according to the AFR. The case had been due to run until May 17 before the settlement deal was struck.

A spokesman for Uber Australia-NZ told the Herald, “While Uber and the plaintiffs have reached an in-principle settlement, it would be inappropriate to comment on specifics until the agreement is finalised and the settlement is disclosed to the court.” He would not comment on the amount.

Could it happen here?

Competition specialist Michael Wigley said New Zealand laws allowed for a similar class action lawsuit.

But under the Limitations Act (2010), legal action had to filed within six years of the alleged offending, in most circumstances. That means the clock has run down for taxi drivers in NZ.

Uber launched in NZ a decade ago, and its operations shifted from a grey area to explicitly legal seven years when the Land Transport Amendment Bill was passed in 2017, formally recognising rideshare firms.

Uber had no comment on the NZ situation.

Employment case in NZ

Uber’s NZ operation has faced legal turbulence of a different sort, however.

In October 2022, the Employment Court ruled, in a case brought jointly by First Union and E tū, that four Uber drivers should be classified as employees rather than contractors.

In June 2023, the Court of Appeal ruled that Uber could challenge that ruling. A two-day hearing will begin at the Court of Appeal in Wellington from tomorrow.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.