French lawmakers drag in Uber chief for grilling on lobbying

PARIS — France’s lawmakers will next week grill Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi about his company’s aggressive lobbying tactics.

The hearing, organized by the French National Assembly’s inquiry committee into the Uber Files, will take place on May 25 via videoconference, according to a parliamentary agenda.

In July last year, the Uber Files revelations showed how French President Emmanuel Macron, then the economy minister, helped bolster Uber’s growth in France back in 2015. In January, lawmakers from left-wing party France Unbowed decided to set up an inquiry committee to focus on Uber’s lobbying in France, as well as “the social, economic and environmental consequences” of the “Uber model” in the country.

In January, Khosrowshahi told POLITICO he would testify in front of the French parliament, if called upon.

“I absolutely guarantee you that this company is different and what was happening during that time will not happen while I’m CEO of this company,” he said at the time, in what is expected to be his line of defense next week.

“I am determined to rectify what happened in 2017 and prior,” said Khosrowshahi, who was named CEO in 2017, after a string of controversies surrounding his predecessor Travis Kalanick. “Uber Files is why I’m here.”

On Thursday, lawmakers will also hear from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who was both labor and transport minister in Macron’s previous administration, as well as from Clément Beaune, the current transport minister.

The inquiry committee is expected to wrap up before the summer.