Earlier today, ride-share clusterfuck Uber got a fresh dose of the only kind of news it seems to get anymore, which is bad news. Per CNN, the city of London has declined the company’s efforts to renew its license to operate within the city’s bounds, citing safety concerns, and the company’s past efforts to deliberately mislead and identify government regulators while operating in the U.S.
“All companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect—particularly when it comes to the safety of customers,” London mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement supporting the decision. “Providing an innovative service must not be at the expense of customer safety and security.” Uber has already moved to appeal the decision, which will allow the company to operate in the city until the process is concluded.
One of the biggest strikes against Uber—which has been under fire from all directions in recent months, thanks to a combination of bro-heavy corporate culture and a desire to “disrupt” things like “following the law”—has been the recent revelations about its Greyball software system. Ostensibly built to filter out problem riders, the company has admitted to using it to flag and avoid government officials and regulators, even identifying locations and types of phones investigators might use while trying to police the company for operating outside its regulated bounds. Uber has stated that Greyball has never been used in that capacity in the U.K., but London Transport officials seemed unmoved by the company’s claims.