WATCH ABOVE: A class action lawsuit has been launched against UberX and UberXL. They want more than $400 million and an injunction forcing the services to stop doing business in Ontario. Christina Stevens reports.
TORONTO — A Toronto cab owner has filed a more than $400 million class action lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all taxi and limousine owners, drivers, brokers and service companies operating in the province.
Windsor law firm Sutts, Strosberg LLP is representing plaintiff Dominik Konjevic, a taxicab owner and operator since 1968, in a lawsuit against Uber and its affiliates that alleges UberX and UberXL drivers conspired to pick up passengers despite knowing they were not licenced under the Highway Traffic Act.
The lawsuit is seeking $400 million in compensatory damages, $10 million in punitive damages and an injunction prohibiting UberX and UberXL from continuing to operate in Ontario.
READ MORE: Next up for Uber in Canada: regulation, somehow
Konjevic said he launched the lawsuit because “there’s lots of injustice done to the taxi drivers” and he wanted to “change the system because these people are illegally working.”
“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to fight to the end and I’m positive that something is going to be done,” he told Global News, adding that his income had dropped 48 per cent last year due to what he said was competition from Uber.
“So every year it’s more and more, because it was one Uber now we have seven of them. That’s the reason, there’s more cars, more people driving it and there’s less left for me and also for the companies like Beck, Diamond, Royal and Co-Op.”
Konjevic said he wanted to sell his cab licence, which he claimed in previous years would have sold for up to $385,000, but could only get about $75,000 for it if he were to sell it today.
“I have to face the wife everyday, she says, ‘You’re going to work and you’re not making me any money, you’re not even paying your own expenses,'” Konjevic said.
“The main thing is the car — we have to pay [for] the car and maintenance of the car too. So there’s nothing left over.”
He added that he doesn’t agree with Mayor John Tory’s stance on Uber and said the proposed regulation of UberX would not make sense because of the issue of insurance.
“I mean if you want to operate your taxi or your own car, you cannot drive without insurance,” Konjevic said. “These people are doing it, they don’t have commercial insurance.”
“The Plaintiff alleges that UberX and UberXL has created an enormous marketplace for illegal transportation in Toronto,” Jay Strosberg, a partner at Sutts, Strosberg LLP, said in a statement.
“The courts have previously ruled that Uber Black, Uber SUV and Uber Taxi services do not contravene any municipal bylaws, however we are alleging that UberX and UberXL do not fall into the same category, and are in fact, blatantly in contravention of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, and detrimental to the ongoing business interests of every taxi and limousine operator in the province.”
Susie Heath, a spokeswoman for Uber Canada, called the lawsuit a “protectionist suit” that is “without merit.”
“As we saw from a recent court ruling in Ontario, Uber is operating legally and is a business model distinct from traditional taxi services.”
READ MORE: Uber is forcing Canadian cities to re-evaluate the way we take cabs
The firm said that many of the Uber Black, Uber SUV and Uber Taxi drivers are properly licensed drivers who operate in accordance with the Highway Traffic Act governing the taxicab and limousine businesses in Ontario.
Yet said that the UberX and UberXL Drivers, who are registered to use the UberX and UberXL services, do not conform with the Act.
“The suit alleges that Uber and its UberX and UberXL platforms knowingly created and control a business enterprise that would harm the business interests of the Plaintiff and the Class Members,” the statement read.
“And that the defendants were unjustly enriched when they collected a portion of the UberX and UberXL fares which were in contravention of s.39.1(1) of the Highway Traffic Act.”
Phil Bozzelli, a director at the Ontario Limousine Owners Association, said they are aware of the situation with the lawsuit and will be meeting about it next week.
“We’re still waiting to see what action the city is going to take. At this point in time we may be joining the lawsuit,” he said, adding that Uber has become a “wake up call for the taxi industry.”
“The big issue right now is public safety. If you are riding in an UberX car, a guy just using his personal car, he doesnt have personal insurance … if you use your personal car for service your insurance will become null and void.”
With files from Christina Stevens
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