{"id":44705,"date":"2023-10-20T15:37:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/damaging-and-misleading-anti-uber-ads-removed-from-nsw-taxi-council-website-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:37:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:55","slug":"damaging-and-misleading-anti-uber-ads-removed-from-nsw-taxi-council-website-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/damaging-and-misleading-anti-uber-ads-removed-from-nsw-taxi-council-website-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDamaging\u201d and \u201cmisleading\u201d anti-Uber ads removed from NSW Taxi Council website &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"313\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/pexels-photo-Large-681x333-640x313.jpg\" alt=\"Uber app\" title=\"pexels-photo-Large-681x333\"><\/div>\n<p>Uber has won a case against the New South Wales Taxi Council, after the advertising watchdog ruled the council advertised inaccurate information about the ridesharing company\u2019s services.<\/p>\n<p>The taxi council ran a series of radio-style advertisements on its website, each of which stated, \u201csmartphone ridesharing services aren\u2019t as smart as you think\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The ads claimed ridesharing services did not have complete insurance cover, and riders would have to cover the bills in the event of an accident.<\/p>\n<p>The council also claimed ridesharing services did not complete driver checks, and cars used are \u201ccompletely untraceable\u201d if smartphones are switched off.<\/p>\n<p>The case began in December 2015, and only recently come to conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Uber has rebuked the taxi council\u2019s statements from the start, arguing all the claims made by industry group were false.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll new uberX rideshare driver partners in NSW must undergo a criminal history police check and it is Uber\u2019s policy that it will suspend a driver partner upon becoming aware that the driver partner has been charged or convicted of a serious criminal offence,\u201d Uber told the Advertising Claims Board.<\/p>\n<p>Uber also informed the advertising watchdog that all Uber vehicles require mandatory third party insurance.<\/p>\n<p>The advertising watchdog ruled the ads breached sections 1.2 and 1.3 of the Advertising Code of Ethics.<\/p>\n<p>Claims made in the ads were \u201cunqualified representations\u201d and \u201clikely to cause damage to a competitor\u201d, the Advertising Claims Board ruled.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the taxi council said the links to the ads no longer appear on its website.<\/p>\n<p>While the ads in question were removed, many statements regarding the risk of ridesharing services still exist on the taxi council\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>An Uber spokeperson told SmartCompany the ridesharing company is pleased with the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very pleased that the Advertising Standard Board found that the Taxi Council of New South Wales\u2019s advertisements were misleading,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Taxi Councils around Australia have attempted to fill the public debate with misinformation and time after time they have found to be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Uber is still technically illegal in many states in Australia, however the service continues to operate in jurisdictions while negotiations continue.<\/p>\n<p>Uber has more than eight million users worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>SmartCompany contacted the Taxi Council of New South Wales for further comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first published on SmartCompany.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> <em>Facebook,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Twitter,<\/em><em>LinkedIn&nbsp;<\/em><em>and&nbsp;<\/em><em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uber has won a case against the New South Wales Taxi Council, after the advertising watchdog ruled the council advertised<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}