Uber used Greyball fake app to evade police across Europe, leak reveals

The dummy version of the app was used in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, the documents reveal. Composite: Guardian Design

It was a trick as audacious as it was ingenious. When police or regulators opened the Uber app, they would see exactly what the public saw: dozens of cars crawling around the city, waiting to be summoned.

But there was one crucial difference: these cars were fake.