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SAN FRANCISCO (NYT) \u2014 The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States attorney\u2019s office in New York are looking into whether Uber used tactics and software to illegally interfere with Lyft, its largest American competitor.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The investigation is focused on Uber\u2019s use of a special program internally called \u201cHell,\u201d said people with knowledge of the proceedings, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Uber had used the program to gain an edge over Lyft in markets where both companies operated, these people said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Uber confirmed that the ride-hailing company was cooperating with the investigation but declined further comment. A spokesman for the United States attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan declined to comment, while the F.B.I.\u2019s New York office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The investigation was\u00a0earlier reported\u00a0by The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

While Uber\u00a0appointed a new chief executive\u00a0last month, the ride-hailing company continues to grapple with the fallout from past actions under Travis Kalanick, its former chief. Mr. Kalanick prized aggression in building Uber, which often resulted in tactics and practices that skirted the boundaries of the law \u2014 and that have led to multiple legal headaches.<\/p>\n

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Uber had used the program<\/strong> to gain an edge over Lyft in markets where both companies operated<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Justice Department is\u00a0also looking into\u00a0another Uber\u00a0software program, named \u201cGreyball,\u201d which was used to evade law enforcement in cities where the company\u2019s ride-hailing service was not allowed to operate. Separately, Uber is dealing with an inquiry over accusations that one of its employees bribed officials in India, and the company continues to be entangled in a legal battle over intellectual property theft with Waymo, a major competitor in the race to conquer self-driving car technology.<\/p>\n

The \u201cHell\u201d program was essentially a competitive intelligence initiative created by Uber to challenge Lyft for drivers and riders. According to the people familiar with the investigation, Uber employees used the program to monitor drivers who worked for both services. Uber would then use financial incentives to persuade drivers to work for Uber more frequently instead of Lyft.<\/p>\n

The existence of the \u201cHell\u201d program was uncovered this year by a technology news site, The Information, which said Uber ended the effort in 2016.<\/p>\n

One key question, according to one of the people with knowledge of the investigation, is whether Uber engaged in some kind of unlawful computer access as part of its scheme.<\/p>\n

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Uber would then use financial incentives to persuade drivers to work for Uber more frequently instead of Lyft.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Friday, Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber\u2019s new chief executive, also stepped down from the board of The New York Times Company, where he had held a seat since 2015. In\u00a0a filing\u00a0with the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Times said Mr. Khosrowshahi\u2019s decision \u201cwas not due to any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company\u2019s operations, policies or practices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (NYT) \u2014 The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States attorney\u2019s office in New York are looking into whether Uber used tactics and software to illegally interfere with Lyft, its largest American competitor. The investigation is focused on Uber\u2019s use of a special program internally called \u201cHell,\u201d said people with knowledge of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,1,26,62],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}