ANNOUNCING: We are suing @Uber and @Lyft for misclassifying their drivers.

Billion-dollar businesses don’t get to pick and choose which laws they follow. Tune in for our live press conference at 11AM here: https://t.co/ONVUH6HNBr pic.twitter.com/Xlm7tv82Yn

— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) July 14, 2020

Healey’s office argues that the companies don’t meet a three-part test under state law that would let them classify drivers as independent contractors. They’d have to prove that “the worker is free from their direction and control; the services the worker performs are outside the usual course of their business; and the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the service performed for the party.” The AG’s office asserts that none of those are the case for Uber and Lyft.

Despite various efforts to force the companies to class drivers as employees, Uber and Lyft have long defended their practice of treating them as independent contractors. They have both suggested that drivers prefer to set their own hours and have the freedom to work for several ride-hailing and gig-working services. However, many drivers have complained about low pay and the lack of protections and benefits. The AG’s office has asked drivers for the companies to weigh in through a complaint form.

“At a time when Massachusetts’ economy is in crisis with a record 16 percent unemployment rate, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning an income,” an Uber spokesperson told The Verge. “We will contest this action in court, as it flies in the face of what the vast majority of drivers want: to work independently. We stand ready to work with the state to modernize our laws, so that independent workers receive new protections while maintaining the flexibility they prefer.”

“This lawsuit threatens to eliminate work for more than 50,000 people in Massachusetts at the worst possible time,” a Lyft spokesperson told the publication. “Drivers don’t want this — 89 percent of Massachusetts Lyft drivers drive fewer than 20 hours per week and choose to drive rideshare precisely because of the independence it gives them to make money in their spare time. Across the country, drivers have said they want to remain independent contractors over employment by a 4 to 1 margin.”

According to the Department of Justice, in 2019, after the newsletter published an article about litigation involving eBay, executive leadership sent messages that it was time to “take down” the newsletter’s editor. That kicked off a three-part harassment campaign. First, the former employees began sending ominous items to the newsletter editor and her husband, who served as publisher. They also sent porn addressed to the editor to neighboring homes, allegedly harassed the couple on Twitter and planned to dox them. 

According to the DOJ a few of the former employees registered for a software development conference in Boston and then drove to the victims’ home in nearby Natick, Massachusetts. They allegedly intended to break into the victims’ garage and install a GPS tracking device on their car, but the victims noticed the surveillance and notified the Natick police. The eBay employees allegedly tried to interfere with the investigation that followed.

In a statement published today, eBay says it was notified by law enforcement of suspicious behavior in August 2019 and began its own investigation. By September 2019, it terminated all involved employees, including its former chief communications officer. eBay’s former CEO Devin Wenig left the company the same month.

“The internal investigation found that, while Mr. Wenig’s communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed toward the blogger and her husband,” eBay said. “However, as the Company previously announced, there were a number of considerations leading to his departure from the Company.”

The charges would be significant if they incriminated a group of rogue mid-level staffers, but the fact that the cyberstalking and harassment was allegedly carried out by senior-level staff make the charges that much more disturbing.

“eBay does not tolerate this kind of behavior,” the company said in its statement. “eBay apologizes to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected to this.

The governor’s office said that 61 cases of potential lung disease related to vaping have been reported in Massachusetts alone. Three in the state have been confirmed by the center of disease control (CDC) and two are likely to be confirmed. “We’re declaring this public health emergency because medical and disease control experts have been tracking the rapidly increasing number of vaping related illnesses that in some cases have led to death,” said Baker.

We as a commonwealth need to pause sales in order for our medical experts to collect more information about what is driving these life threatening vaping-related illnesses.

To enforce the ban, local police and public health boards will need to check numerous retailers to ensure products are removed from shelves. That has convenience store owners concerned. “Is it the product being sold on the shelves by companies like Juul, or is it the off-brand stuff coming from other countries and sold on the internet?” Retailers Association of Massachusetts president Jon Hurst told the AP. “I hope we can all work together and find out what is the problem and find a solution soon.”

Other states, including New York and Michigan, have temporarily banned flavored vaping products, but Massachusetts is the first to do a full ban. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is mulling a nationwide ban of flavored vape products. The FDA is working on a policy to remove most non-tobacco-flavored e-cigs from the market, and is expected to share details of the plan soon.

The CDC has cautioned against using vape products until it knows what is causing the problems. At least 530 people have come down with a vaping-related lung illness, and nine have died. Patients have reported using products containing both THC and nicotine. The CDC has advised users to watch for symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, chest pains, nausea, abdominal pain and fever. Above all, it said you “should not buy these products off the street.”

The settlement amount is considerably lower than the $100 million offer Uber proposed in 2016, but which US District Judge Edward Chen ruled to be inadequate. However, the original lawsuit involved some 385,000 drivers across California and Massachusetts. Following Chen’s rejection of the deal, Uber won an appeals court ruling that forced many drivers into arbitration, and in a bid to settle these dispute more quickly, the company offered some a settlement of 11 cents for each mile they had driven, which could add up to a payout of several thousand for individual drivers. Uber’s most recent settlement proposal now covers just 13,600 drivers between the two states, so they’ll get more money than they would have under the $100 million settlement offer.

According to Shannon Liss-Riorden, an attorney for the drivers, the settlement is “substantial” and should work out at around 37 cents per mile for the drivers involved. This is a marked improvement on the total $12 some drivers would have made under the previous settlement offer, but as Reuters notes, still not as much as the reimbursements seen in earlier claims. According to documents shared with Reuters, one driver was reimbursed 64 cents per mile in early 2018.

Nontheless, the settlement helps resolve another challenge in a long list of lawsuits, disputes and investigations Uber is trying to tidy up before going public later this year. The company confidentially filed for an initial public offering in December and could be valued at as much as $120 billion. In a bid to appease its drivers, Uber will allegedly give them the opportunity to buy shares at its IPO. However, the settlement still needs to be approved by Chen, so Uber might not be out of the woods yet.