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i agree with your point about multinationals but this case is more interesting than that. Uber isn't Coca Cola. They essentially used tactics like this to go from plucky underdog to multinational.

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Uber was always too shady to be justifiably plucky

Uber was justifiably shady. They had to get around outdated laws that protects an outdated medium of transportation.

No, they simply went around laws that governed their market in order to outcompete other providers, and they are pretty smug about it. They never discriminated between laws that are obviously obsolete and laws that are still important.

Which laws were important?

Insurance laws and employee laws, for starters. And even medallion laws in some places, because they offset the costs cabs incur for being a part of city transportation infrastructure - costs like adapting cars to service elderly and disabled.

There are a lot of reasons people think Uber is shady beyond just their lawbreaking.

Their CEO, their abusive and toxic mysoginist work culture, etc.

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