Portland Transportation Commissioner Dan Saltzman says he plans to ask the City Council to issue a subpoena to the ride-hailing company Uber.
Saltzman said the company has refused the city's request to hand over a software program called Greyball, which the company used to flag the phones of regulators and deny them rides. The company has also declined to show the city a playbook that allegedly detailed how Greyball could be applied in cities where Uber operated without local approval.
"There are smart, bright people at Uber, and we just want to make sure that they’re operating within the bounds of our regulatory agreement, and to a larger extent, that they’re operating ethically," Saltzman said in an interview with OPB and the Oregonian.
The Portland City Council has issued a legislative subpoena just once before, during an investigation into PGE and Enron about a decade ago.
PGE defied the subpoena, and a court case over it was never fully resolved, leaving open questions about the city's power to compel companies to turn over information.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation began investigating Uber’s use of Greyball after a story in the New York Times revealed the tactic.
“They say there is no playbook. I don’t think we every really got an answer on the software,” Saltzman said.
Saltzman said his primary concern is ensuring that Greyball is not being used in violation of the city's requirement that transportation network companies provide universal service in all of Portland's neighborhoods.
Uber did share some information with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on its use of the program.
Uber used the Greyball technology to tag the accounts of at least 16 different government officials in Portland, according to the city’s investigation.
It used the Greyball software to refuse rides to three different regulators on 29 separate occasions.
The company removed those tags in 2015 when it launched legally in the city. The investigation did not uncover any evidence Greyball has been used to deny riders service since then.
City investigators reviewed roughly 3,600 audits that inspectors have conducted of Uber and Lyft drivers since the companies launched locally.
" Our investigation showed things looked pretty good for Uber and Lyft, in terms of providing universal service," he said.
Saltzman said he does not intend to fine the company or revoke its operating permit over its use of Greyball in 2014. The company paid a $67,000 fine at the time for operating in Portland illegally.
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