Rideshare service Uber is being sued by at least 50 women, according to a complaint reportedly filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, claims that “women passengers in multiple states were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked” by their Uber drivers, according to CNBC. The filing detracts from a safety report Uber released on June 1 in which the company claimed that sexual assault reports were down.
REPORT: Uber Allegedly Used ‘Kill Switch’ During Police Raids To Prevent Authorities From Accessing Computershttps://t.co/rtRVxA7SGj
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 12, 2022
The case was filed by attorneys from Slater Slater Schulman, CNBC noted.
“While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences,” the firm’s founding partner Adam Slater said in a statement. (RELATED: ‘Rape Office’: Elon Musk Hammers NBC’s Many Scandals)
Despite introducing new safety features, Uber reportedly received 3,824 reports between 2020 and 2021 alleging the “five most severe categories of sexual assault and misconduct.” The number of complaints constitutes a drop of 38% compared to the company’s first safety review, conducted between 2017 and 2018.
“Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously. There is nothing more important than safety, which is why Uber has built new safety features, established survivor-centric policies, and been more transparent about serious incidents. While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work,” a representative for Uber told the Daily Caller.
The company further claimed that “while the law firm claims to represent 550 women with claims against Uber. This law firm has actually only filed 12 cases against Uber to date. They have not been able to provide any critical incident details for us to identify a connection to the Uber platform.”
Uber tracks sexual misconduct such as “non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part” and “non-consensual sexual penetration,” according to CNBC.