Uber India Rape Complainant Withdraws US Lawsuit: Report

A Uber passenger who sued the company in the U.S. in January after complaining she had been raped by her driver in New Delhi, India, has voluntarily withdrawn her case, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing court documents.

The documents didn’t give details on how the case was settled, the news service reported. The driver was arrested in December after the complaint and is facing prosecution in a local court. The woman passenger had gone on to take Uber Technologis Inc. to court in California.

The withdrawal comes at a time when Uber faces a class-action lawsuit from drivers in the U.S., and is in a pitched battle for market share around the world, including India, its second largest market, where local rival ANI Technologies operates the country’s biggest cab-hailing network, Ola Cabs.

Uber had argued in April that the case -- in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Doe vs. Uber Technologies Inc, 15-424 -- should be thrown out because the woman was suing the wrong legal entity, as the driver had a contract with Netherlands-based Uber B.V.

The passenger’s attorney had termed it an attempt at deflecting responsibility, Reuters reported.

The California company, whose investors include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is perhaps the richest startup in the world, valued at $50 billion after its latest round of funding.

The eventual resolution of the class-action suit in the U.S., where three drivers argued they were eligible to claim as a group what they termed were portions of tips withheld and reimbursements of expenses, could have repercussions for the business model that Uber has pioneered, and rivals like ANI Technologies have adopted.

A U.S. judge has granted them class-action status on the issue of the tips, while asking for more evidence on the reimbursement front. As many as 160,000 drivers could potentially join the class action, but they will first have to specifically opt out of an arbitration process. Uber will be appealing the judgment.