Apartment and office buildings in Itaim Bibi, São Paulo, at sunset, 2017. Photo: Slyronit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

BRAZIL · GIG ECONOMY

A Brazilian judge has told Uber to stop charging drivers a fee for the right to take trips. The order comes from a labour court in Salvador, a city in north-east Brazil, and it applies across the whole country.

It suspends Uber’s “Passe para Motoristas” (Driver Pass), a fixed fee paid in advance instead of a service fee on each trip. Uber, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker UBER, says it is weighing an appeal.

What Did the Court Order Uber to Do?

The 9th Labour Court of Salvador granted a preliminary injunction, a provisional order issued before the final trial. The decision became public this week, and this account is current as of 12 November 2026.

Uber has 48 hours from official notification to suspend both versions of the Pass, by time and by earnings, described below. It must also stop requiring any subscription, access fee or other payment as a condition for drivers to accept trips, whatever the charge is called.

Uber must remove advertising that links the fee to “earnings predictability”. The fine for failing is R$100,000 (about US$17,700, at R$5.65 per US$, the market rate seen on 12 November 2026) a day for each obligation, which covers stopping the charge, not setting up a new one and ending the advertising.

Drivers whose Pass is already active and paid keep a zero trip fee until the paid period or earnings band ends, with no renewal and no extra per-trip charge. Where payment is partial or a debt exists, Uber may not collect new Pass charges, and in other cases it may go back to charging per trip as before.

How Does the Driver Pass Work?

Uber launched the Pass on 25 May 2026, and it runs in 42 Brazilian cities. It lets drivers and motorcyclists pay a fixed fee in advance instead of a service fee on each trip.

There are two types. One is by time, a 24-hour or 72-hour pass, and the other is by earnings band, where a driver pays once and owes no trip fee until a set amount of earnings is reached.

Why Does This Case Matter Beyond Brazil?

In our reading, the order tests whether a fixed fee for access to work is lawful for platform drivers. The order applies to every city where the Pass runs, which is 42 across the country.

The prosecutors argue that the driver pays in advance, before any trip is made. They say the cost can exceed R$1,000 a month (about US$177).

The São Paulo skyline around Avenida Paulista seen from Avenida Rebouças, 21 March 2007. Photo: Alexandre Giesbrecht, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What Do the Prosecutors and Uber Say?

Ilan Fonseca, deputy national coordinator for fighting labour fraud at the MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho, Brazil’s public labour prosecutors), calls the charge illegal. He describes it as “a prepayment so the worker could provide a service”.

Fonseca says this breaks Brazilian law and Convention 181 of the International Labour Organization (ILO, the United Nations labour agency), which covers private employment agencies. The convention deals with private employment agencies, and the MPT says the Pass breaks it.

Uber says it is analysing the injunction and weighing legal steps to appeal, and that the programme is still in a test phase. It argues that fixed-price charging “is not illegal and can benefit drivers”.

Uber also says the decision creates “legal uncertainty and competitive imbalance”, because several ride apps use subscription models. It adds that the merits of the case will still be judged.

What It Means for You

Uber’s shares trade in New York, and the order concerns a Brazilian programme that Uber calls a test. We have no figure for how many drivers use the Pass or what it earns Uber, so we cannot size any effect on its results.

Related coverage: For another Brazilian labour deal, read Brazil Shop Workers Get Five-Day Week Deal. For the map behind the story, see Brazil’s Regions and States Explained.

More: Brazil news, every day from The Rio Times.

What Is Not Known

A video hearing to receive Uber’s defence is reported for 27 November in Salvador, but we have not seen the court’s notice, and we do not know whether Uber has complied yet. We also do not know how many drivers use the Pass or what the order costs Uber.

The suit, filed in August 2026 by prosecutor Luiz Antonio Nascimento Fernandes of MPT Bahia, also asks for refunds of everything drivers paid, R$321 million (about US$57 million) in collective moral damages (compensation for harm to society), and access to the source code of the platform’s algorithm. The injunction decides only the suspension, so those requests are still pending.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Uber’s Driver Pass in Brazil?

It is a fixed fee that drivers and motorcyclists pay in advance instead of a service fee on each trip. Uber launched it on 25 May 2026, and it runs in 42 Brazilian cities.

What did the Brazilian court order Uber to do?

A labour court in Salvador suspended the Pass, in both its time and earnings versions, across Brazil and gave Uber 48 hours from official notification. Uber faces a fine of R$100,000 (about US$17,700) a day for each obligation if it does not comply.

Can Uber appeal the decision?

Uber says it is analysing the injunction and weighing legal steps to appeal, and that the programme is still in a test phase. It also says the merits of the case will still be judged.

Sources: 9th Labour Court of Salvador, preliminary injunction (made public 10 November 2026); Brazilian Labour Prosecutor’s Office (MPT) statements and suit (suit filed August 2026); Uber statement via company note (week of 10 November 2026); ILO Convention 181.

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error

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