Ride-share giant Uber did not engage in an unlawful conspiracy when “crushing” a rival company after launching illegally in Australia, a court has found.

Uber’s arrival in 2014 prompted the eventual collapse of Taxi Apps and its GoCatch phone platform, which linked customers to available taxis in major cities.

Taxi Apps enjoyed success after its 2011 launch but by mid-2015 – after Uber began operating in violation of local licensing laws – “trip numbers had flatlined”, Justice Lisa Nichols says in a Victorian Supreme Court ruling.

However, while noting Uber engaged in some “wrong and unconscionable” conduct, she has rejected Taxi Apps’ bid for damages.

Taxi Apps argued Uber Technologies Inc conspired with other businesses in its group – including Uber BV, Uber Holding and Uber Australia – to unlawfully harm Taxi Apps in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA. To win its “conspiracy by unlawful means” case, it needed to show there was an “agreement or combination to perform unlawful acts with the intention ... to injure the plaintiff”.

But Justice Nichols says in her judgment: “The Uber entities admitted to knowing unlawful conduct for the purposes of this case.

“From the facts admitted it may be accepted that they engaged in that conduct on a significant scale. However, the elements of the [conspiracy] tort have not been made out.”

She says there was “no scope for an agreement to effect an unlawful purpose because Uber Inc itself determined what would occur without needing the concurrence of its subsidiaries. The fact they implemented its plan did not establish a combination for the purposes of the law.”

Justice Nichols says Uber Australia breached a duty of confidence when it “surreptitiously obtained” a list of Taxi Apps drivers.

This was “unconscionable”, but she adds: “This court’s judgment marks the court’s disapproval and condemnation of that conduct by the standards of the law and, by extension, the community. It is sufficient to do so without the remedy of a declaration. The particular incident, although wrong, was relatively confined in its scale and reach.”

Uber, which now operates under state and territory laws, launched in Australia as part of American founder Travis Kalanick’s strategy of “regulatory arbitrage”, the ruling says.

The judgment details communications between senior figures at Uber, including then global expansion head Austin Geidt in January 2014 discussing Mr Kalanick’s vision for peer-to-peer ride-share as “go very aggressive ... from now on ... rather than them proving a market is green. It’s green until they prove it’s red ... Insurance is the big clusterf--- right now seeing as so many international insurance brokers are saying they need proof that we’re legal in each market doing P2P in order to provide it.”

See the ruling here.

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