MDL Plaintiffs Accuse Uber of Conducting Flawed Background Checks, Ignoring Assaults

SAN FRANCISCO — In a master complaint, MDL plaintiffs accuse rideshare giant Uber Technologies Inc. of relying on flawed background checks to screen its drivers and failing to adequately monitor their safety performance, leading to thousands of sexual assault complaints.

In the Feb. 15 pleading in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, plaintiffs say Uber’s background checks did not use any biometric information, such as fingerprints, and relied on inadequate public databases rather than the FBI database used by the taxi industry.

“When states (such as Maryland and Massachusetts) performed their own fingerprint-based background checks, 12-15 …