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Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman on Friday praised the federal government's criminal investigation into Uber's high-tech evasion of city regulators and other practices.
As expected, Saltzman announced that City Council will vote on Wednesday to subpoena the company for further information on Uber's use of "Greyball," the technology that allows the company to change customer's views on the ride-sharing app. All members of City Council have signed on, so the resolution is expected to pass.
The company has acknowledged the use of Greyball to evade regulators for two weeks in 2014, but Uber denies using it in Portland since.
This morning, Reuters first reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation of how Uber used Greyball.
Saltzman says Portland has provided the U.S. Department of Justice with all data and other information the city gathered as part of a preliminary investigation released last week, which found no wrongdoing since 2014.
"We support the criminal investigation by the United States Department of Justice into Uber's use of the Greyball tool to evade regulators, and will continue to move forward with our own efforts to subpoena the requested records from Uber," Saltzman says in a statement.
"My colleagues on the City Council have formally signed on to a resolution to subpoena Uber and force the company to turn over the Greyball playbook and associated software is what we would be subpoenaed. give that their five cosponsors."
Uber denies holding back anything of significance during the investigation by the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
"The PBOT report found no evidence that Uber has used Greyball or any technology to avoid city inspectors since the council passed laws allowing ride sharing services to operate in Portland in 2015," says Bryce Bennett, Uber General Manager for Oregon in a statement. "Uber's local operations team has participated in weekly compliance calls and meetings with the PBOT staff for over two years, and will continue to do so to ensure Portlanders and area visitors continue to have safe, affordable and equitable access to the n services they have come to depend on."