v. In exchange for use of the Uber Software, drivers will be charged a service fee on a per transportation basis calculated as a percentage of the determined fare.
This is found under the allegations section of the lawsuit.
Good point! We'd have to dig into the user agreement itself to see what nuances exist there. Based on this complaint alone, I suspect Uber will argue "determined fare" may not mean "fare charged to rider" and that drivers are paid on the actual ("determined") miles and time.
Additionally, I find the allegation that Uber created upfront pricing for "the purposes of creating this discrepancy" to be very difficult to prove. Is this intended to highlight the difference between a breach of contract and "malicious fraud"?
By the way, here's an article from last summer on the same topic, quoting Uber as saying:
“With upfront fares, riders agree to a fare that’s calculated in advance while drivers get paid based on a per-mile, per-minute rate as is normal with uberX,” the spokesman told Fortune. “Because no predictive model is 100% perfect, what riders pay and drivers earn on a trip may differ slightly from time to time.”[1]
However, it is confusing, and Uber's own site makes no mention of upfront pricing and says:
"Drivers using the partner app are charged an Uber Fee as a percentage of each trip fare."
Those two statements are at odds with each other, and both are from official Uber sources.
v. In exchange for use of the Uber Software, drivers will be charged a service fee on a per transportation basis calculated as a percentage of the determined fare.
This is found under the allegations section of the lawsuit.