According to the article: "a driver may only refuse a few trips before being logged out by the system", that plus the fact that they can't set their own fares a

According to the article: "a driver may only refuse a few trips before being logged out by the system", that plus the fact that they can't set their own fares and Uber can retroactively lower drivers fares, was the main reason Uber lost the case. If Uber let drivers reject as many rides as they wanted and allowed drivers to set their own fares and negotiate directly with their clients, then they may very well have won the case. But then they would also be a very different company.