LOS ANGELES – Uber and Postmates recently filed a joint lawsuit against the state of California over its new gig economy law Assembly Bill 5, calling the bill “unconstitutional.”
Filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the lawsuit is among a number of similar complaints that have been filed over the past weeks by companies, industries and associations that are pushing for complete exemption from the bill, which took effect on Jan. 1.
"...Uber will join Postmates and two independent workers in California to bring a constitutional legal challenge of Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) on the basis of lack of equal protection and due process under both federal and state law,” the company told the Northern California Record in a statement. "...We will also move to relate our lawsuit to the equal protection claims brought by the freelance journalists in California.”
In this particular lawsuit, the tech companies allege that the new bill specifically targets “modern app-based” ride and delivery companies while exempting others, therefore violating equal protections.
Ride-hailing companies will be following along closely to the other similar lawsuits against the bill hoping to be able to follow their lead in successfully exempting themselves from the controversial legislation. The bill has also been challenged by some in the trucking industry.
“Uber is joining a growing number of industries (e.g. truckers, freelance journalists) to legally challenge the biased legislative process that produced AB 5,” Uber said in the statement. “The process was totally arbitrary, carving out a seemingly random set of industries while the bill’s proponents were explicit about their intention to unfairly target app-based companies such as Uber.
“...Multiple credible outside observers have publicly noted that Uber, Postmates and other gig economy companies were ‘targeted’ by AB 5, which we believe violates our access to equal protection under the law,” Uber said.