Lyft will implement a number of security and governance reforms to settle a shareholder lawsuit accusing the ride-sharing firm’s officers and administrators of not doing sufficient to stop drivers from sexually and physically assaulting passengers.
A preliminary settlement was filed on Tuesday night time within the Oakland, Calif., federal courtroom, and requires a decide’s approval.
Lyft agreed to spice up passenger consciousness of the “Alert 911 Silently” characteristic on its app for reporting misconduct, and make it simpler to report issues 24/7 to a dwell human. It additionally mentioned it has additionally improved coaching and its code of enterprise conduct and ethics.
The modifications would final at the least three years. Officers and administrators would pay no cash to the corporate, and their insurers would pay $700,000 to cowl the plaintiffs’ authorized charges.
Shareholders claimed that Lyft’s popularity suffered from the corporate’s insufficient coaching and background checks for drivers, together with these with histories of sexual misconduct.
Additionally they mentioned Lyft hid the shortfalls earlier than its March 2019 initial public offering, and in addition hid defects in its digital bikes that led to quite a few accidents.
Lyft officers denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
In an announcement, the San Francisco-based firm mentioned it settled “solely to keep away from the disruption and value of litigation.”
Lyft has mentioned the lawsuit was the final shareholder case arising from the IPO. Via Tuesday, Lyft’s share worth had fallen 83% for the reason that providing. Lyft shares have been down 4% on Wednesday.
Many ride-share passengers have additionally accused Uber drivers of sexual assault.
Greater than 300 lawsuits towards Uber alleging such conduct have been mixed right into a federal class motion pending in San Francisco. The variety of plaintiffs might attain the 1000’s.
The case is In re Lyft Inc Spinoff Litigation, U.S. District Court docket, Northern District of California No. 20-09257.
