Data acquired by CNN shows Uber employees have ordered and canceled more than 5,500 rides from rival Lyft since last October. CNN says it requested the data while reporting another story about the competition between the two companies.
Lyft claims this is happening all across the county and says the data links the fake ride requests to at least 177 Uber employees.
The fake requests cost Lyft drivers money. They spend their own gas money to get to the destination only to find out they've been scammed. While responding to the fake order, the Lyft driver is off the app map meaning users needing a ride might pick an Uber driver instead.
Lyft spokeswoman Erin Simpson released this statement:
- "It's unfortunate for affected community members that they have used these tactics, as it wastes a driver's time and impacts the next passenger waiting for that driver. We remain focused on growing the business faster than any competitor through better customer experience and innovation."
An Uber spokesperson responded with this statement:
- "Lyft's claims against Uber are baseless and simply untrue. Furthermore Lyft's own drivers and employees, including one of Lyft's founders, have canceled 12,900 trips on Uber.
"These attacks from Lyft are unfortunate but somewhat expected. A number of Lyft investors have recently been pushing Uber to acquire Lyft. One of their largest shareholders recently warned that Lyft would 'go nuclear' if we do not acquire them. We can only assume that the recent Lyft attacks are part of that strategy."
That led to another response from Lyft, who issued this statement:
- "Once again Uber is deceiving the public, now with false allegations and an attempt to deflect from their illegal cancel campaign. Lyft has more than 100 investors, all of whom are extremely excited that Lyft is approaching IPO-level revenue. Our 'nuclear' strategy is continuing to take market share with 30 percent month-over-month growth, while building the strongest community of drivers and passengers."
The CNN report does say this is not the first time Uber has been accused of canceling rides on a competing service. Earlier this year, Uber staffers in New York called and withdrew more than 100 ride requests with another ride-share rival. After being uncovered, Uber said in a statement that it would "tone down their sales tactics."
Read more about the report here.