Uber Files: German lobbyists in the service of a US corporation

A data leak shows how Uber did everything in its power to influence politics and the public in Germany. The group received support from former politicians and scientists.

When Uber wants to gain a stronger foothold in major German cities in 2014, the US company encounters massive resistance. Uber uses an app to provide driving services, one of which, UberPOP, aims to ensure that not only taxis but also private individuals can transport passengers in the future. The international company, which had a turnover of 17 billion US dollars last year, demands a whopping commission for this.

With the offer, which was part of Uber’s core business, the group was in direct competition with the regulated German taxi market. The stupid thing is that German courts see Uber not just as a digital start-up that only provides an app, but rather as a driving service that, like taxis, therefore needs a license and would also have to set up local branches for it. As a result, the US group would be fully taxable in Germany.

The Uber Files now show for the first time how great the pressure on the US group actually was at the time. There is talk of “crisis time” and Uber’s chief lobbyist for Europe warns: “If we lose Germany, we lose Europe”.

“You’re in charge, my friend”

The Californian company then did everything in its power to influence the existing legal situation and public opinion in Germany to its own advantage. At times, four agencies took care of Uber’s presence in Germany at the same time, the monthly costs for this amounted to more than 150,000 euros. In the meantime, the unprecedented lobbying campaign has been coordinated by the FDP’s current spokesman for budgetary policy in the Bundestag, Otto Fricke.

Fricke is a lawyer and was a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2013. Shortly after leaving, he joined the Munich lobby agency CNC Communications & Network Consulting (today the company is called Kekst CNC) as a partner, where he assumed responsibility for Uber. He only worked for the group from September 2014 to March 2015, Fricke said on request.

His task consisted primarily of structuring the services of other consulting firms. “You’re in charge, my friend,” Uber’s chief lobbyist for Europe wrote in an email to Fricke. And Fricke delivered: he offered to send SMS to the then Federal Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt, he met various parliamentary state secretaries, a department head in the Ministry of Transport and spoke to Jens Spahn.

Questionable side changes between politics and lobbying

“Otto Fricke is an example of how former top politicians don’t return to the job they learned, but instead make their political network available to wealthy customers,” says Timo Lange from the Lobby Control association. There have been rules of waiting for ministers and state secretaries for a number of years, and the lobby register also helps to create more transparency. However, there should also be a discussion about a waiting period for MPs, “especially if they switch to explicit lobbying jobs”.

Fricke, who returned to politics immediately after working as a lobbyist in October 2017, emphasizes that he was not responsible for the relevant topics in the Bundestag either then or now. He takes the “separation between my previous work for CNC and my political mandate as a member of parliament (…) very seriously.” Andreas Polk, professor at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, conducts research on lobbying. He takes a critical view of switching sides between politics and lobbying: “It’s certainly not illegal, but do we want MPs like that? I don’t really think so.”

Attempt to directly influence politics

In any case, the central goal of the German campaign, which cost many hundreds of thousands of euros, was clear: the passenger transport law, which prevented Uber’s core business, should be changed in the interests of the US group. In an email, Uber instructed Fricke and the German team to maintain absolute confidentiality about working for the company. In daily phone calls and weekly reports, the lobbyists analyzed media coverage, documented meetings, shared briefings and planned next steps.

The communication consultants focused on directly influencing politics. They meticulously compiled data on decision-makers who could be important for the group, from the then Transport Minister Dobrindt and his State Secretary Dorothee Bär, to members of the Bundestag and state parliaments and mayors to employees of district offices.

In charts, the actors were sorted into two categories: how powerful the person is and to what extent they are considered Uber-friendly. Not infrequently, extremely personal assessments were found about the respective persons. “Tends to be inactive, but maybe because of the big name [gemeint ist Uber] impressed,” is noted, for example, about a district administrator in Bavaria.

Lobbyists are expecting a lot from Meet the Bear

According to Uber Files, Uber consultants in Germany held hundreds of interviews with politicians, high-ranking officials and journalists between 2013 and 2017. The lobbyists had high hopes for Dorothee Bär. After the transport minister at the time, Dobrindt, apparently made it clear that he did not want to have anything to do with the subject, the focus was on the parliamentary state secretary. There were a few meetings, a policy paper was presented, and Fricke also met with Bär. And when she visited Silicon Valley together with Minister Dobrindt in October 2015, there was also a meeting at the Uber headquarters.

The Uber files show that preparations had been made for Bär’s visit. They wanted to give her a lot of attention, “a lot of love,” Uber’s chief lobbyist for Europe called it at the time. Five months later, an Uber representative wrote that the tide was turning. There was another meeting with Bär and the politician is said to have agreed to gradually changing the Passenger Transport Act. Despite repeated requests, Bär did not want to comment on any point. Dobrindt explained that there had been no changes to the Passenger Transport Act.

Attempt to influence public opinion

But public opinion was also a crucial building block for Fricke and his team. There are numerous clues in the data as to how Uber has attempted to make strategic stock deals with influential media companies, for example to gain publicity for its holdings. Commissions to scientists and lawyers were also part of Uber’s campaign, including an opinion by former defense minister and now constitutional lawyer Rupert Scholz. The company hoped to score points in the legal dispute over its offer.

At the request of the group’s lawyers, the constitutional lawyer apparently made changes to the already completed report, which were not the subject of the legal area to be examined, but which Uber wanted to introduce into the political debate. The Uber Files give this impression. Scholz did not respond to repeated requests.

Resistance from taxi companies successful

Despite all efforts in politics, science and the media, Uber’s Germany campaign did not make any progress. The country is one of our most difficult markets worldwide, wrote a high-ranking Uber employee in 2015. From Uber’s point of view, the reasons for this were, among other things, the “bitter resistance of Taxi Deutschland”. The group of taxi companies had sued several times against Uber’s offer and was right.

In autumn 2014, the frustration was apparently so great that the group considered hiring a private detective agency to collect negative information about the board members of Taxi Deutschland. A few weeks later, a dossier was actually sent in which past legal disputes and allegations against the former Taxi Deutschland board members can be found. The extent to which it was used is not clear from the data. When asked, Taxi Deutschland was outraged by this approach and spoke of “mafia methods”.

Uber’s appearance in Germany is problematic

The aggressive behavior of the US group also posed a problem. Despite several court rulings to the contrary, Uber continued to offer its service UberPOP in German cities for quite a while and also considered “creative ways” to secretly continue to pay its drivers, knowingly that this contradicted the legal situation in force at the time.

Fricke apparently found Uber’s appearance in Germany to be increasingly problematic. “Otto would like to take a slightly more forgiving approach that may conflict with our preferred approach,” reads an email. Fricke confirmed that he had recommended that the group “pursue a different market entry strategy in Germany than previously in the USA” and that everyone involved should be heard.

When asked, Uber said that the company had changed fundamentally in the past five years, and that “the business model had already been fundamentally changed and adapted to the German regulatory framework.” Today, one exchanges information with political decision-makers “respectfully and with mutual understanding”.

The US group has actually been more moderate since 2015 and has also changed its range of driving services, in Berlin they even offer trips with taxi drivers today. “We hate it obviously,” it said in a 2016 email.