Los Angeles.- A federal jury ordered Uber on Thursday to pay $8.5 million, after finding the ride-sharing company liable in a lawsuit by a passenger who was sexually assaulted when she used the service in Arizona.
This is the first time Uber has been found guilty and sentenced to pay for its responsibility in a sexual assault in the United States, which could influence thousands of similar cases against the tech company.
The lawsuit was filed by Jaylynn Dean, who claimed to have been raped by an Uber driver while she was under the influence of alcohol and returning to her hotel in November 2023 in Tempe (Arizona).
Dean’s lawyers, cited by the Arizona’s Family newspaper, argued in court that Uber was promoted as a safe service for women who had been drinking alcohol, despite the series of complaints and their own data that this demographic group was, in fact, the one at greatest risk of sexual assault.
They also argued that Uber did not corroborate the driver’s criminal background in the U.S. or in his country of origin.
At the time of the assault, the company also did not offer female drivers as a service option, nor video or audio recordings during the trip.
For its part, the company argued that Uber was not responsible since the drivers are not its employees but independent contractors.
Uber accused the woman of consenting to sexual relations, despite the driver admitting that the woman was too drunk to give her consent.
The company fired the driver for having sexual relations while on a trip, which is prohibited.
The jury, composed of nine people who deliberated for about three days, found Uber responsible for one of the three charges it was accused of.
The company faces thousands of similar lawsuits. In July 2022, about 550 American women filed a lawsuit in California against the ride-sharing company Uber for having been assaulted by drivers while inside vehicles hired through the platform.
