Florida Supreme Court Turns Down Uber Records Case
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA) - The Florida Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal filed by a subsidiary of Uber Technologies in a dispute about whether Broward County needs to release records about the number of passengers picked up by Uber drivers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The Supreme Court, as is common, did not explain its reasons for declining to decide the case. The five justices who took part in the decision --- Chief Justice Charles Canady and justices Peggy Quince, Ricky Polston, Jorge Labarga and Alan Lawson --- agreed.
The Uber subsidiary, Rasier-DC, LLC, went to the Supreme Court in March after a ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal.
A company that operates Yellow Cab in the Broward area filed the lawsuit requesting records submitted by the Uber subsidiary to the county as part of a licensing agreement.
A panel of the appeals court upheld a circuit judge's ruling that part of the information is not covered by trade-secret protections and should be public.
That information includes numbers of pickups and money paid to the county as a usage fee. "In short, the total number of pickups and the fees paid to Broward County do not meet the definition of trade secrets under (parts of state law)," the appeals court ruling said.
"Nothing indicates the fees or total pickups provide an advantage to Yellow Cab or that Uber derives independent economic value from keeping that information secret."
(©2018 CBS Local Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The News Service of Florida's contributed to this report.)