Liu

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

THOMAS LIU, Case No. 20-cv-07499-VC

Plaintiff,

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S

v. MOTION TO DISMISS WITH LEAVE

TO AMEND; DENYING MOTION TO

UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC., STRIKE CLASS ALLEGATIONS

Defendant. Re: Dkt. No.

The motion to dismiss for failure to exhaust is denied. Liu’s letter to the EEOC on May 2, 2016 readily satisfies the requirement that he file a charge within 300 days of his termination. The motion to strike the class allegations is denied as premature. However, the complaint must be dismissed for failure to state a claim. One could readily imagine a plaintiff successfully stating a disparate impact claim for a policy of terminating drivers solely on the basis of customer ratings without accounting for likely racial bias. Indeed, one could imagine a plaintiff stating a claim for intentional discrimination, depending on the extent to which the company is aware of likely racial disparity in customer ratings. But this particular complaint is too sparse and poorly drafted. For example, while alluding generally to “social science research,” the…