BUSTED

Uber Rigged Surge Pricing

Passenger heard incriminating text sent to driver.

Popular car-service company Uber is under fire after it confirmed it sent a text sent to a driver on Valentine’s Day that read: "UberX is very close to SURGE. It's Valentine's Day! People will be out all night and we didn't activate new drivers to make earnings even higher this weekend." Uber’s surge pricing during periods of higher car demand has been a major source of frustration for customers, but the company always defended the policy by claiming it's determined by a market-based algorithm. Uber claims the text message wasn't trying to manipulate surge prices, but rather intended to increase earnings for drivers. "Best-case scenario it’s fleecing customers to enrich drivers, worst-case scenario it’s fleecing customers to enrich the broker [Uber]," said Andrew Lane, who discovered the text. "That is a slap in the face to customers.”