claim: Uber increased its prices in parts of London around the time of a terror attack in June 2017
origin: On 4 June 2017, severalÂ web sites reported that the ride-sharing company Uber had increased its prices in London, in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack there, a day earlier.Â CNN, for example, reported: < Uber has been accused of taking too long to turn off its â€œsurge pricingâ€ feature after a deadly terror attack in the heart of London. App users complained that they were being charged inflated prices on Saturday night after a van plowed into pedestrians on London Bridge and three knife-wielding men attacked revelers in a nearby nightlife district. > The Daily Mail carried the headline: < Social media erupts as Uberâ€™s prices rocket in aftermath of London terror attack â€“ but company says it immediately removed â€œautomatic increaseâ€ as horror unfolded. > AndÂ Resistance ReportÂ went even further in its accusations against the company: < Ride-sharing company Uber took advantage of the London terrorist attack to make a hefty profit off of people evacuating affected areas. > There is no dispute that Uber prices were elevated in London around the time of the attack, which police say started just after 10 P.M. local time. This is because the company uses a system calledÂ â€œdynamic pricingâ€, which increases or decreases the price of a journey based on algorithms that analyze the intensity and volume of demand for Uber cars in a given geographical area.Â Crucially, these price changes happen automatically, and are not the result of a decision made by anyone at Uber. However, dynamic pricing can be switched off manually, which is what the company says happened in this case. A spokesperson for Uber told us: < We suspended dynamic pricing all around the area where the attacks took place atÂ 10.50pmÂ â€” a few minutes after the first media reports and before the first statement from the Met Police. We also ensured all rides from the area were free of charge â€”Â refunds were all made yesterday [4 June]. This is also what happened after the attacks in Manchester two weeks ago. > The spokesperson added that dynamic pricing was also suspended throughout central LondonÂ about an hour and a half after the attacks were first reported. It is trueÂ that the first official Metropolitan Police statement â€”Â that is, the first to appear on its website â€”Â was published at 3:58 A.M. local time, some five hours after Uber claims it suspended dynamic pricing in the vicinity of the attacks. However, theÂ Met Police Twitter account first posted an advisory about what transpired to be a terrorist attack at 10:28 P.M. At 10:37 P.M.,Â the London Ambulance Service Emergency Planning and Resilience Officers tweeted a public warning to â€œavoid the areaâ€ near London Bridge.Â In any event, while a price surge was ongoing at the time of the attack, it was switched on automatically, and Uber does appear to have switched it off within 25 minutes of the firstÂ reports of a serious incident. In the past, the companyÂ has been criticized for consciously allowingÂ a price surge to continue in response to a crisis, such as in December 2014, when aÂ hostage-taking in Sydney, Australia saw Uber prices go up.Â Uber appeared toÂ defend this practice at first, explaining on Twitter: < Fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area. > However, the company later apologized: < The events of last week in Sydney were upsetting for the whole community and we are truly sorry for any concern that our process may have addedâ€¦We didnâ€™t stop surge pricing immediately. This was the wrong decision. > We asked Uber whether they had changed their policies to prevent such actions being repeated, but we did not receive a response to that question. Â Â