A group representing about 20,000 California rideshare drivers sued Uber on Monday, alleging the company violates the very law it helped write by deactivating drivers without a real appeal process. The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by Rideshare Drivers United, argues that Uber’s failure to give drivers who were kicked off due process violates the terms of Proposition 22.
Proposition 22 is the 2020 ballot measure that carved out gig drivers from California labor law, allowing companies to continue classifying them as independent contractors. Voters approved it with an explicit promise that drivers would get an appeals system when their accounts were closed. The new suit claims that the promise has gone unfulfilled.
According to the plaintiffs, Uber deactivates drivers for reasons not listed in its “Platform Access Agreement” and does not share sufficient earnings data for drivers to verify that they are being paid 120% of minimum wage, as required by Prop 22. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that, because Uber has not complied with the law, the company should no longer be allowed to treat its drivers as contractors.
Uber spokesperson Ramona Prieto rejected the claims, calling lead plaintiff attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan “an opportunistic trial lawyer” and vowing to “fight this publicity stunt in court.” Prieto said the company already provides a clear appeals process for deactivated drivers. Rideshare Drivers United counters that the process exists only in name.
Why This Matters For Self-Employed Readers
The case is the latest test of where the line between independent contractor and employee sits, and a ruling against Uber could ripple far beyond rideshare. Any freelancer or gig worker who signs a platform agreement is, at some level, betting that the platform will honor its own terms.
When those terms are unilateral and offer no real recourse, the “independent” part of independent contractor starts to look thin. That tension sits at the heart of nearly every classification fight playing out across the country right now.
The suit also lands during a period of heavy federal attention on worker classification. The U.S. Department of Labor has a proposed rule on the table that would simplify how companies classify contractors, and lawmakers in multiple states are weighing portable benefits bills that would give contractors more stability without making them employees. A California ruling on Uber’s deactivation practices would add a concrete data point to that broader debate.
What Freelancers And Contractors Should Do Now
For freelancers who work through platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, DoorDash, or Instacart, the practical takeaway is to read every platform agreement carefully and keep your own records of earnings and communications. If a platform ever closes your account, those records are your first line of defense.
Watch for the court’s schedule on this case and for any similar suits in states with their own classification laws. And if enough contractors get shut out without recourse, lawsuits like this one are how the issue eventually reaches a courtroom that can set a binding precedent.
Photo by Paul Hanaoka: Unsplash
