D.C. Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini ruled Monday that Empower, a software service that enables independent drivers to arrange rides with customers, remains in contempt of the court's November 2024 order to cease and desist operations, following a conditional order of contempt issued in February. Matini sanctioned Joshua Sear, CEO of Empower, with a daily $5,000 fine until the company is brought into compliance.* For Empower to comply with the court order, it must shut down its D.C. operations, which will rob hardworking independent drivers of a significant source of income.
At Monday's evidentiary hearing, attended by Reason, Jonathan Rogers, director of the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV), testified that the DFHV, which regulates all vehicle-for-hire services in the city, has never received the $5,000 application fee or the $250,000 security fee from Empower to register as a digital dispatch service or private vehicle-for-hire business. Since the DFHV's first cease and desist order in 2020, the company has argued that it is a software service, not a ride-hailing service, and therefore not subject to the department's jurisdiction.
Rogers also testified that, while Empower uses the same background checking service as Uber (Checkr), its trade dress—the logo displayed by for-hire vehicles—proposal was insufficiently detailed. Empower also doesn't verify whether drivers carry commercial insurance and does not remit 6 percent of its customers' (drivers') gross receipts to the city. (Rogers acknowledged that Sears tried to arrange to make payments to the city but was unable to because Rogers himself did not put him in contact with DFHV's account managers.)
