Canada’s highest court granted Uber’s request that the court hear the appeal. The decision follows a ruling from January, which centred around a class-action lawsuit that David Heller, an Uber Eats driver, launched against the firm. Heller argued Uber Eats drivers are employees, and thus should be entitled to benefits like minimum wage and vacation pay; Uber maintains that the drivers are independent contractors. The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled in Heller’s favour. (The Logic)

Talking point: A clause in Uber’s services agreement mandated all disputes go through arbitration in the Netherlands; the Ontario court found that this was illegally outsourcing an employment standard. This latest development is a reprieve for Uber, which is battling similar class actions in multiple jurisdictions around the globe. In March, the company paid US$20 million to settle a similar class action in the U.S. In December 2018, it lost an appeal over driver-employment rights in the U.K.; an employment tribunal had found in 2016 that its drivers should be classified as employees and thus entitled to the national minimum wage and paid holidays. Uber’s margins depend on keeping employee costs low and, in the long term, the company wants to eliminate human drivers by using self-driving cars in its fleet.