Taxi industry disruptor Uber is taking legal action to stop a former British police officer from disrupting its own business by arresting UberX drivers operating illegal private ridesharing services.
Russell Howarth has made nine citizen's arrests personally and has supervised five citizen's arrests. Uber has brought a claim in the Supreme Court of New South Wales to get a permanent injunction to stop Mr Howarth from making any more citizen's arrests.
Court documents obtained by AFR Weekend show Uber is looking for a temporary order to stop Mr Howarth from intimidating, arresting, threatening or harassing UberX drivers, as well as payment for damages and Uber's legal costs.
Mr Howarth is an undischarged bankrupt. He has declined to confirm whether any third party is paying for his legal representation, although he said the industry is mobilising to fund the case. Mr Howarth's legal team will be defending his case on the grounds Uber's business model is illegal and the citizen's arrests were lawful.
"It is the defendant's position that the activities of Uber and its business model are illegal and criminal," Mr Greg James QC, appearing for Mr Howarth, told the court on Friday. Mr Howarth's legal case will rest on two critical elements, the legality of Mr Howarth's conduct and the illegality of Uber's conduct, Mr James said.
On Wednesday the NSW Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction to stop Mr Howarth from arresting citizens until July 17. After the temporary injunction was issued, he tweeted he will be "jumping on a plane interstate". The temporary injunction only applies in NSW.
Mr Howarth has been posting details of his citizen's arrests on his personal blog Arresting Uber and Twitter account.
Uber has accused Mr Howarth of Mr Howarth and the taxi industry of trying to intimidate consumers into stop using Uber.
"The taxi industry and associates like Mr Howarth try to use intimidation, scaremongering and threats to stop people from using Uber. It isn't working," Uber spokeswoman said in a statement on Friday.
"The safety of our driver partners and riders is Uber's top priority and protecting them from Mr Howarth's behaviour was the reason we sought this injunction."
Mr Howarth said Uber managers potentially face jail for "criminal conspiracy" to disobey the law and it will jeopardise the company's chance of floating on the sharemarket.
"This case is going to have a significant impact on Uber's IPO dreams," Mr Howarth told AFR Weekend outside the courtroom on Friday.
Ridesharing in private cars is currently illegal, but Uber could be legalised in New South Wales as soon as next year, after the NSW government on Wednesday launched an independent taskforce to review the taxi and ride sharing industry.
