This article is more than 1 year old

How was your week? Was it as bad as Uber's? Here's what happened

Upstart taxi biz looking forward to weekend and counting up its $41bn paper worth

You ever have one of those weeks where nothing seems to go right?

Maybe the train runs late in the rain. Or the lace on your boot breaks as you're walking out the door. Or maybe four major cities across the planet line up to sue you.

Yeah, Uber just had a week like that – just days after it was injected with $1.2bn of funding, valuing the biz at $41bn.

The San Francisco-headquartered startup was under fire after one of its freelancer drivers was accused of raping a woman in New Delhi, India, last Friday. The fallout convinced authorities to this week push for a ban on the service amid allegations Uber failed to adequately screen drivers.

Uber responded on Thursday by suspending its operations in Delhi. Spokesman Karun Arya said: "We are sorry and deeply saddened by what happened over the weekend in New Delhi. Our hearts go out to the victim of this horrible crime. We have been and will continue to do everything in our power to assist the authorities to help bring the perpetrator to justice."

On Tuesday, the city of Portland sued the startup: the Oregonian hipster beacon accused Uber of violating taxi laws and operating vehicles without a license.

Uber has vowed to fight the case, but it has other issues to address, too: the upstart is also being sued by the counties of San Francisco and Los Angeles, which claim Uber doesn't do enough to screen its drivers.

And then there's Brussels. Officials in the Belgian capital have acted on complaints from cabbies – and filed paperwork to block Uber from operating in the city and ban use of the app. Like those in other cities, the authorities in Brussels say the company will only be allowed to operate if it complies with taxi regulations, which typically set fares and require licenses.

If that wasn't enough, security holes in Uber's software were disclosed on Wednesday.

If nothing else, the company does have a nice bit of security to fall back on in its hefty cash value. The company just racked up a $41bn valuation.

Uber drivers also made out nicely this week in San Francisco, where a major storm wreaked havoc for citizens and sent Uber fares up 3.8 times their normal rate. Apparently the no-gouging agreement Uber signed with New York doesn't carry over to California. ®

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