April 21, 2026 / 4:54 AM EDT / AP — A federal jury in Charlotte found rideshare company Uber liable for the actions of a driver who grabbed a passenger’s inner thigh as she exited the front seat and asked if he could “keep her” with him. The jury awarded the plaintiff $5,000 in damages, plaintiff attorney Ellyn Hurd said.
The case served as a bellwether in a consolidated group of sexual-assault lawsuits against Uber nationwide and was the third of those cases to reach trial. In February, a federal jury in Arizona ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million to a woman who said a driver raped her during a trip arranged through the platform; last year a California jury found Uber not liable in another alleged assault.
In an emailed statement, Uber noted the relatively small award and that the jury found battery rather than sexual assault. The company said the amount “represents a tiny fraction of previous demands” and indicated it plans to appeal, arguing the jury was improperly instructed on liability.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they were sexually abused unless they consent through counsel or come forward publicly.
Hurd said the verdict is encouraging for other plaintiffs and noted Uber selected the North Carolina case as the test case for the consolidated suits. “This was a case that they thought going in that they were going to win,” she said. “They picked all the criteria — this is the case that they picked, that they wanted to try. And the jury believed the plaintiff and they lost.”
The lawsuits come amid years of scrutiny about Uber’s safety record and thousands of reports involving sexual misconduct by both passengers and drivers. Uber has long argued it is not liable for drivers’ misconduct because drivers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, overseeing the consolidated cases, ruled that Uber is a “common carrier” under North Carolina law and therefore can be held liable for the driver’s actions. Breyer pointed to Uber’s portrayal as a transportation provider in its advertising and the degree of control it exercises over rides and passenger safety. He also noted that North Carolina, unlike Florida and Texas, did not exempt rideshare companies from common-carrier liability.
Because of that ruling, Hurd said the jury’s role was limited to deciding whether the assault occurred. Uber said the driver denied touching the plaintiff and that the company only learned of the allegation when the lawsuit was filed three years later; the company pointed out the incident was not reported to law enforcement. Hurd responded that a failure to report does not mean an incident did not happen. During the trial, which began Wednesday and concluded Monday, jurors heard testimony from the plaintiff, the driver and friends who corroborated the plaintiff’s account, Hurd said.
Breyer, who sits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, is scheduled to hear two more sexual-assault test trials against Uber. The next is set for mid-September in San Francisco.