An investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents, revealed by numerous media, including Franceinfo and Le Monde, reveals the involvement of the President of the Republic, then Minister of the Economy, in the establishment and consolidation of the giant VTC in France.
A secret “deal” between Emmanuel Macron and Uber. This is revealed The world and franceinfo in an investigation, which is based on thousands of internal documents at Uber, unveiled this Sunday evening. The documents, sent by an anonymous source on a daily basis The Guardian and transmitted to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, explain how Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, acted in favor of the VTC giant.
Based on various testimonies and documents, including numerous SMS exchanges, The world concludes that there is a secret “deal” between Uber and Emmanuel Macron in Bercy.
The daily reports meetings in the minister’s office, numerous exchanges (appointments, calls or SMS) between the teams of Uber France and Emmanuel Macron or his advisers, citing in particular minutes of meetings written by the lobbyist Mark McGann.
Certain practices, intended to help Uber consolidate its positions in France, such as suggesting that the company present “turnkey” amendments to deputies, are particularly singled out.
“Caz accepted the deal”
The investigation returns in particular to the suspension in France of UberPop, a service in operation between February 2014 and July 2015 which allowed users to be put in contact with vehicles whose drivers were private individuals, not holders of a taxi or VTC license. According to the revelations of our colleagues, Emmanuel Macron would have requested the suspension of the service in exchange for a simplification of the conditions necessary to obtain a license of VTC.
They also reveal messages, exchanged between Emmanuel Macron and Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber until 2017: “Can we trust caz (Bernard Cazeneuve, Prime Minister at the time, editor’s note)?”, writes Travis Kalanick. “We had a meeting yesterday with the Prime Minister, responds Emmanuel Macron. (Bernard) Cazeneuve will make sure that the taxis remain calm and I will bring everyone together next week to prepare the reform and correct the law. Caz accepted the deal”.
Denial of the Élysée and Uber
Asked by AFP, the company Uber France confirmed the holding of meetings with Emmanuel Macron: meetings which “were under his responsibilities as Minister of the Economy and Digital supervising the VTC sector”.
For Uber France, the suspension of UberPop “was in no way followed by more favorable regulation”, as suggested in the idea of a “deal”.
For its part, the Élysée indicated to AFP that Emmanuel Macron, as Minister of the Economy, was “naturally led to exchange with many companies engaged in the profound change in services that has occurred during the years mentioned, that ‘it was necessary to facilitate by unraveling certain administrative or regulatory locks’.
Indignation of the political class
After the revelation of these “Uber Files”, the French political class, and in particular the left, was indignant. The boss of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot denounced on Twitter a “looting of the country”, Emmanuel Macron having been, according to her, both “advisor and minister of François Hollande and lobbyist for a US multinational aimed at deregulating the labor law in the long term” .
Fabien Roussel, number one of the PCF, relayed “damning revelations on the active role played by Emmanuel Macron, then minister, to facilitate the development of Uber in France”, “against all our rules, all our social achievements and against the workers’ rights”.
“Uber deserves a small commission of inquiry” parliamentary, judge for his part the communist deputy Pierre Dharréville.
On the other side, Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, also considered that “Emmanuel Macron’s career has a consistency, a red thread: to serve private interests, often foreign, before national interests”.
Questioned by AFP, the former PS deputy Thomas Thévenoud, who gave his name to the law of October 2014 delimiting more precisely the respective rights and duties of taxis and transport cars with driver (VTC), believes that Emmanuel Macron “remained a privileged interlocutor” of Uber.
He had met him on the subject in the spring of 2014 when he was deputy secretary general of the Elysée. “He always wanted to roll out the red carpet at Uber,” he said.
The former MP and short-lived Secretary of State also wonders about the role of Elisabeth Borne, who “knows these subjects perfectly”. The head of government was Minister of Transport at the time of the mobility orientation law then Minister of Labor when social dialogue was promoted in the VTC sector – “without granting employee status to Uber drivers”, points out Thomas Thévenoud.