Uber Is the New Britney Spears

We used to count on Britney Spears as the leading source for blog fodder.  Move aside Britney.  Uber just passed you by.  We have two new Uber stories just in California alone.

First, last week the District Court for the Northern District of California issued its opinion in Mohamed v. Uber Technologies.  Paul Mollica of the Employment Law Blog called that decision a “blockbuster,” because it ruled Uber’s arbitration agreement with its drivers unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.  The opinion is very long, so we will simply bullet point the highlights.  With respect to contracts entered into in 2013, the court found:

• Valid contracts were formed between plaintiffs and Uber, notwithstanding plaintiffs’ claims that they never read the agreements and that doing so was “somewhat onerous”;
• While Uber sought to delegate questions of enforceability to the arbiter, the court found that its attempt to do so was not “clear and unmistakable” as the contract included a provision that “any disputes, actions, claims or causes of action arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the Uber Service or Software shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the City and County of San Francisco, California”; 
• In the alternative, the agreement was unconscionable and therefore unenforceable;
• The procedural unconscionability standard of “oppression,” generally assumed in form contracting, was not overcome in this instance by an opt-out clause; the opt-out was inconspicuous and perhaps illusory;
• The procedural unconscionability standard of “surprise” was also met because the arbitration provision was “hidden in [Uber’s] prolix form” contract; and
• Uber’s arbitration provisions are substantively unconscionable because the arbitration fees create for some plaintiffs an insuperable bar to the prosecution of their claims.

The court acknowledged that the unconscionability question was a closer question with respect of the 2014 contracts but still found them both procedurally and substantively unconscionable.

There is much more to the opinion, but that is the basic gist.

In other news, as reported in The New York Times here, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office issued a ruling earlier this month in which it found that Uber drivers are employees, not independent contractors as the company claims.  The (mercifully short!) ruling can be found here through the good offices of Santa Clara Law Prof, Eric Goldman (pictured).

The issue arose in the context of a driver seeking reimbursement for unpaid wages and expenses.  The facts of the case are bizarre and don’t seem all that crucial to the key finding of the hearing officer.  Although plaintiff”s claim was dismissed on the merits, Uber has appealed, as it cannot let the finding that its drivers are employees stand.

But the finding is a real blockbuster, especially as Uber claims that similar proceedings in other states have resulted in a  finding that Uber drivers are independent contractors.  Here’s the key language from the ruling:

    Defendants hold themselves out to as nothing more than a neutral technological platform, designed simply to enable drivers and passengers to transact the business of transportation.  The reality, however, is that Defendants are involved in every aspect of the operation.  Defendants vet prospective drivers . . . Drivers cannot use Defendants’ application unless they pass Defendants’ background and DMV checks

    Defendants control the tools the drivers use . . . Defendants monitor the Transportation Drivers’ approval ratings and terminate their access to the application if the rating falls below a specific level (4.6 stars).

As the Times points out,  few people would choose to be independent contractors if they had the option to be employees.  Our former co-blogger Meredith Miller has written about similar issues involving freelancers, and we blogged about it here.  So far, it appears that five states have declared that Uber drivers are independent contractors, while Florida has joined California in finding them to be employees.  For more on the implications of this ruling, you can check out this story in Forbes, featuring insights from friend of the blog, Miriam Cherry.