GLOBAL ride share giant Uber will pay $272 million AUS (around £140m) to settle a long-running dispute with Australian taxi and hire car drivers, it was announced today.

A class action against Uber had been expected to go to trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria today, but Maurice Blackburn Lawyers — representing 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers — said the case will be dropped because Uber agreed to the financial settlement.

Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Michael Donelly said that drivers and car owners suffered financial losses due to Uber’s aggressive entry into the market in 2012 and that the company consistently attempted to avoid compensating them.

“On the courtroom steps and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant,” he said.

An Uber statement described the complaints of the taxi industry as “legacy issues.”

The statement said: “The rise of ride sharing has grown Australia’s overall point-to-point transport industry, bringing with it greater choice and improved experiences for consumers, as well as new earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers.”

It’s the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australia’s history and comes five years after the action was launched.