Brazilian courts uphold Uber's block of driver accounts amid fraud claims

A court in São Luís rejected a Uber driver’s request to reactivate his account and to receive compensation, ruling that the platform’s deactivation was justified after evidence of duplicate registrations and coordinated rides suggested fraud. The judge noted that the driver’s pattern of five trips with the same passenger in a short period was incompatible with normal platform use, and therefore upheld the block and denied any moral or financial damages.

In a separate case, the 4th Civil Chamber of the Tribunal de Justiça de Santa Catarina affirmed a lower‑court decision refusing payment of a R$ 4.7 million ride from Casemiro de Abreu (RJ) to Itapema (SC). The court accepted Uber’s fraud indicators, including a passenger account created only a day before the trip, the driver’s residence in Itajaí despite accepting a long‑distance ride, and prior refusals of other trips, concluding that the evidence justified withholding the fare.