Ride-Sharing Services Get More Legal Pushback

The District Attorneys of Los Angeles and San Francisco are threatening three prominent mobile ride services—Uber Technologies, Lyft and Sidecar—with injunctions and accused them of violating California law. The accusation is that the services are “misleading customers about how thoroughly (they) check the criminal backgrounds and driving records of drivers,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Much of this seems to be fallout from a June incident in San Francisco, when a Uber driver was charged two counts of battery after allegedly assaulting a passenger, the story said.

According to the letter sent to Sidecar—although the Journal send letters sent to all three firms were similar—the DAs (San Francisco’s George Gascon and LA’s Jackie Lacey) are asking for an end to car-pooling feature, launched earlier this year, which allows passengers to share rides with strangers for cheaper rides. That service violates a section of the public-utilities code which prohibits transportation providers charging multiple people for the same ride.

Sidebar CEO Sunil Paul said that the law prohibits his firm from excluding job applicants solely because they were convicted of a felony more than seven years ago.