The ride-hailing company Empower can continue to offer free rides in the District, a judge said Thursday, affirming a recent strategy employed by the start-up amid a years-long legal battle with the city over its right to operate.
The D.C. government has said Empower should not operate in the city after failing to properly register as a private vehicle-for-hire company. To comply with a court order to stop doing business in the District, the app recently began offering free rides within city limits, prompting another challenge from D.C. attorneys.
On Thursday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini sided with Empower, saying that offering the free rides did not violate her earlier order. “It almost sounds like the District needs to look possibly at regulating the drivers rather than regulating the company,” Matini said. “Doesn’t the District directly regulate taxicab drivers?”
Empower and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But on X, the company posted Thursday, “Putting transportation decisions back into the hands of drivers and riders.”
“The District is considering its options moving forward,” the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia said in a statement.
Matini’s ruling marks the latest development in the ongoing fight between Empower and Washington. Here’s how we got here.
What is Empower?
Empower is a ride-share start-up app that launched in 2019 and markets itself as a cheaper alternative to other ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. It started operating in Washington in 2020.
The company, though, says it sells reservation software to drivers who set rates for their own individual ride-hailing businesses. “No one signs up to work for Empower,” chief executive Joshua Sear said in court Thursday. “They use our app to work for themselves.”
How does Empower work?
Empower used to charge users for rides in D.C., like other companies. But it changed its operations recently. Now, if you want a ride in the District, a driver would have to agree to do it for free, which is unlikely. For rides that go through D.C. as well as Virginia or Maryland, users would pay for only the portion outside of the District.
The ride-share app is still available like normal in other cities, such as Baltimore, Dallas, Houston and New York City. But it’s facing battles outside the nation’s capital, too, including in Maryland, where the state is also trying to regulate the ride-share service.
How did the legal drama start?
Not long after Empower launched in Washington, the city’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles issued a cease-and-desist order against the company for failing to register as a private sedan business and digital dispatch service. The parties have been fighting in court since 2024, when Matini, the judge, ordered Empower to cease operations until the company successfully registers with the city.
What do the regulations entail?
D.C. requires ride-hailing apps and other private vehicle-for-hire companies to register, like Lyft and Uber, pay 6 percent of revenue to the city, provide commercial insurance and background checks, share ride data, and have logos displayed on vehicles.
Empower said it has repeatedly tried to register with the city but that it has been denied. The District says its applications fell short of the requirements, which would include paying the millions owed in fines.
Sear said the District is refusing to allow its drivers to individually register as private vehicle-for-hire businesses. However, legislation to make that effort possible has been unsuccessful in the D.C. Council.
What happened next?
The legal saga is a long one. By September 2025, Empower had received myriad court warnings and failed to pay millions in fines. That month, Sear finally promised to shut down operations in D.C., barely avoiding jail while admitting defeat in the legal case.
But Empower continued to fight. A few weeks later, the service began telling drivers and riders that “any ride activity in the District of Columbia is not subject to any contract” between Empower and the driver.
Are other ride-sharing apps registered with the District?
Uber and Lyft also began operating without official licenses, but those ride-share apps have agreed to government regulation for more than a decade.
How popular is Empower?
In late 2024, Empower conducted 100,000 rides in the city each week, accounting for 10 percent of the local market. That was a larger share than the District’s taxis.
More recently, Sear said at the Thursday hearing that Empower conducted about 150,000 rides in the Washington metro area last week. He also testified that Empower drivers in the region collectively earned about $1 million less last week than normal, which he attributed to the free rides. “We are going to suffer a meaningful decrease in revenue,” Sear said.
How has the company tried to stay alive in D. C.?
Empower has employed a series of tactics in an effort to continue operating in Washington.
After a hearing last September, Empower used the app to coordinate an email campaign that generated more than 15,000 messages to city leaders. “Mayor and AG — you can jail, threaten, and scheme, but the people will not stand down,” read one sent repeatedly to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).
Earlier this month, the company began urging users not to vote for certain candidates in the city’s June primary elections. “If you want Empower to stay in DC, leave Kenyan R. McDuffie off your ballot!” said one message in the app, exhorting voters to reject the mayoral contender and former council member.
A similar in-app message prompted users not to vote for council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) in the race to replace congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). McDuffie also shared that his daughter had received a death threat against him on Instagram, referencing the Empower ban; the company condemned the harassment. A 17-year-old was recently arrested in connection to the case, according to D.C. police.
At an April 17 hearing, Sear said the platform has complied with the District’s order to stop operating as a private vehicle-for-hire company after updating its software a few days earlier to ban drivers from taking payment for D.C. rides. The D.C. Attorney General’s Office said Empower’s free rides were another attempt to continue as an unregulated company.
What’s next for Empower?
Thursday’s decision means daily fines imposed on Empower will be halted. But a fight remains over the millions of dollars in unpaid fines imposed on Empower.
While the company can keep rolling, it’s unclear how drivers will keep up a profit in the city under the new business model, and, in turn, what that means for Empower’s future.
Meanwhile, the beleaguered transportation company doesn’t seem to be contracting its operations anytime soon. Empower announced Wednesday that it’s live in Atlanta.
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