High Court dismisses £340m claims against Uber as time-barred

The High Court dismissed two lawsuits against Uber on October 19, ruling that claims valued at about £340 million were filed after the legal deadline. The decision ended the cases on limitation grounds, without deciding whether the alleged licensing misconduct occurred. The claims were brought by nearly 13,300 London black cab drivers and by Justin Peters, who held claims assigned by two former private-hire businesses, Kabbee Exchange Limited and Iride London Limited. The claimants alleged that Uber misled Transport for London about its booking and operating system when seeking a London private-hire vehicle licence, allowing it to compete for journeys at their expense. Uber denied the allegations. The lawsuits were filed in 2024. The claimants argued that they could not reasonably have discovered the alleged wrongdoing until licensing-appeal material became public in June 2018, and relied on provisions that can delay the start of a limitation period in cases involving fraud or deliberate concealment. Mr Justice Simon Birt ruled that the claimants could, with reasonable diligence, have discovered information capable of supporting their claims by February 2018 at the latest. He...