Some taxi and hire car industry members are furious with the proposed settlement of one of Australia’s biggest class actions

Uber’s agreement to pay over $270 million to Australian taxi and hire car industry members was hailed as ‘historic’ and a ‘world-first’ when announced in March.

Uber has agreed to pay over $270 million to Australian taxi and hire car industry members as part of one of the country’s biggest class actions.

The settlement, announced in March, will see 8,700 taxi owners, licensees and drivers compensated for losses incurred when Uber illegally entered Australia over a decade ago.

But some class action members are unhappy with their cut of the settlement, which they say is “woefully unfair”.

After Maurice Blackburn’s legal costs and the litigation funder’s commission are deducted, the plaintiffs will receive just a fraction of what they lost.

According to one plaintiff, most will be left with something “pretty close” to $15,000-$21,000.

Queensland Taxi Licence Owner’s Association boss Paul Scaini said such compensation was “woefully inadequate” given that Uber had directly caused his family damages of roughly $1 million.

“My family had to sell their home … I find it amazing that the legal team now considers it somehow equitable that class members be the big losers,” Scaini said in court.

Adding to the不满, several thousand taxi and hire car industry members, who had not registered for the class action, have sought to sign on since the settlement was announced.

Scaini told Moneyweb in October that Maurice Blackburn, which chalked up over $38.6 million in legal fees, promised the plaintiffs justice, not “a token settlement”.

In court, Scaini claimed the decision to settle “boiled down to the litigation funder’s desire to get their hands on $81,541,000 right now rather than have to wait for class members getting any fair and equitable results”.

Several plaintiffs said Maurice Blackburn had previously expressed confidence in taking the case to trial and the settlement announcement took them by surprise.

Brisbane taxi owner Stephen Lacaze said the case’s principal lawyer first came “riding into town on Bradman-like batting averages and the reputation of Maurice Blackburn”.

She “made it very clear that this would be a slow, grinding process, but assured all that Maurice Blackburn had the runs on the board, expertise, and will to see it through,” Lacaze told the court.

The case against Uber was lodged in 2019 and an additional case was added in 2020.

“A lot of the taxi people don’t really understand the complexities of all this,” Scaini said.

“We could highly likely have won the case in the court, but I 100 percent guarantee that Uber would’ve then appealed … because they’ve got the money,” said Rod Barton, who was boss of the Victorian Taxi and Hire Car Association when the suit was filed.

“We would’ve ended up in court for another five years, for what? To get a similar amount of money?” Barton said, citing the additional costs of the case dragging out.

“Everybody who joined the class action knew from the very beginning” that Harbour would take a 30 percent cut of any settlement, Barton said.

“I know people are very upset, but the people responsible for the loss of the licence values are the state governments, not Uber.”

Previous cases brought against state governments in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have all failed.

“We all wanted to win millions, but no one was ever, ever going to do it,” said Barton, adding that he lost his home when Uber wiped out his hire car business.

“I sympathise with [those objecting to the settlement], because I’m in exactly the same position. I want my home back again, but I ain’t going to get it. No other country, as far as I’m aware, has been able to hold Uber accountable for their illegal activity.”

Scaini and Glazebrook were two of 10 objectors who attended the September hearing to protest the settlement.

“When push comes to shove, when people needed to come and mount their case, it was less than a dozen people out of eight and a half thousand,” Barton said.

In response, Scaini told Moneyweb: “There were a hell of a lot more objections. It was only that 10 people chose to talk to those objections in the court.”

According to the court-appointed contradictors, 85 objections were made about the settlement itself.

“There were a hell of a lot more objections. It was only that 10 people chose to talk to those objections in the court,” Scaini said.

According to the court-appointed contradictors, 85 objections were made about the settlement itself.

“There were a hell of a lot more objections. It was only that 10 people chose to talk to those objections in the court,” Scaini said.

According to the court-appointed contradictors, 85 objections were made about the settlement itself.

“There were