According to a media report, a data leak exposed US transportation service provider Uber’s aggressive lobbying campaign in its efforts to enter the European market. More than 124,000 internal documents from 2013 to 2017 showed how Uber “attempted to influence politicians, officials and journalists,” NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported on Sunday.
Current French President Emmanuel Macron, an FDP deputy and former EU commissioner, has maintained close contacts with the company.
Regulation then relaxed
According to the report, a text message exchange suggests that in 2015, when Macron was economy minister, he opposed a critical Uber decree from a French police mayor at the company’s request. “I will look into the matter personally,” Macron wrote, according to NDR, WDR and “SZ” – after which the regulation was relaxed the same night.
At the EU level, Uber has secured the support of EU Commissioner for Digital Affairs Neelie Kroes, according to the report. After leaving Brussels in 2014 and after an 18-month waiting period imposed by the Commission, the Dutch woman took up a well-paid consultant position at the US company. However, documents from the data leak suggest that there was contact between Kroes and Uber during the waiting period in connection with a police raid against Uber in Amsterdam in March 2015. The company was therefore very keen to keep this secret. According to the media, there is a risk that a debate over “the political revolving door and favoritism” could ignite in Kroes.
The dataset was leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian and includes emails, presentations, briefings, text messages and graphics that were evaluated in collaboration with other international media.
Initially, Uber encountered massive resistance and legal obstacles in European countries. According to the documents, the group estimated a lobbying budget of €90 million in 2016 alone to clean them up.