Uber settles Georgia teen’s sex trafficking lawsuit

Uber has settled a Georgia teenager’s lawsuit that alleged it is liable for her being sex-trafficked, ending the case after a judge ruled the company’s CEO would have to answer questions under oath.

The ride-hailing company will pay a confidential amount of money to the Butts County teenager, the parties said in a court filing Friday, adding the funds will be placed in a trust for the girl to receive when she is 18.

Uber denied liability in the case. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement.

The complaint alleged that in November 2024, an Uber driver picked up the girl, then 14, who was alone at a deserted gas station in the middle of the night, then drove her more than 30 miles to the Jonesboro home of a man who drugged and repeatedly raped her over four days.

Uber’s negligence allowed the child to be transported without parental consent and at the request of an alleged sex trafficker, according to the lawsuit. It was filed in Gwinnett County, where the company has a registered agent.

Michael Neff, an attorney for the child, said she has shown great courage in pursuing justice and was willing to go through a deposition and trial if necessary. Neff told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the case and others like it raise important questions about the safeguards used by ride-hailing companies to identify and prevent foreseeable misuse of their platforms.

“It has been an honor to advocate for her and to argue that greater protections by Uber were appropriate under the circumstances,” Neff said in a statement Tuesday. “We hope that changes are forthcoming and the attention these cases have received contributes to stronger protections for children in the future.”

The names of the teen and her mother, who filed the lawsuit on the child’s behalf in March 2025, are protected by a court order. They are referred to in case filings as Jane Does.

The man accused of raping the girl, Thomas Bonner, is in the Clayton County jail charged with rape, sodomy, aggravated child molestation, sexual battery of a minor and enticing a child, county court and jail records show. He has pleaded not guilty.

Uber said in a recent court filing that it deactivated Bonner’s ride-hailing account and fully cooperated with law enforcement after learning of the assault.

Bonner, who is not a defendant in the civil case against Uber, was arrested by Clayton County police in November 2024, days after the girl said she was found at his home by police officers who tracked her down using details of the Uber ride.

The girl alleged she had been communicating online with Bonner, who persuaded her to leave her home in the middle of the night and walk to a gas station where an Uber driver could pick her up.

An Uber spokesperson previously told the AJC that the company is committed to helping combat human trafficking and building on prevention efforts, including equipping drivers with educational resources about identifying and reporting suspected trafficking cases.

The settlement comes after Uber tried to overturn a Gwinnett judge’s ruling that allowed its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, to be deposed by the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The company had sought to shield Khosrowshahi from testifying, saying he had no unique knowledge of any matter relevant to the case. But State Court Judge Emily Brantley said in July that it appeared lower-level staff were kept in the dark about certain relevant matters.

Uber’s attempts to get immediate review of Brantley’s ruling were denied by the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court, though Chief Justice Nels Peterson said in a Sept. 17 opinion he thought Brantley’s assessment of the matter was “seriously flawed.”

Brantley had also punished Uber earlier this month for the conduct of its lawyers during the depositions of two other company employees. In a Sept. 15 order, she said Uber’s lawyers made hundreds of unwarranted objections to questions during the depositions and improperly instructed the employees not to answer certain questions.

The judge ordered Uber to make those employees available for further depositions, at the company’s cost, and to pay the plaintiff $66,000.

Uber is battling hundreds of lawsuits all over the country alleging it is liable for the assault and trafficking of riders. Many of those cases are consolidated before a federal judge in California.