Uber Technologies Inc. is under threat again in its home state of California after a judge fined the company $59 million today and gave the company 30 days to pay the fine or lose its operating license.

The fine and threat came about after Uber allegedly failed to answer the California Public Utility Commission’s questions in relation to a safety report. The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates services in California, said Uber failed to comply with a request to hand over details on assaults by its drivers.

MarketWatch reported that Uber refused to comply, claiming it would infringe on victims’ privacy, even after a judge earlier this year said the company could turn over information under seal to protect confidentiality.

Administrative law judge Robert Mason, who is an employee of the CPUC, made the ruling. “Uber’s conduct has exacerbated its wrongdoing because its refusal to comply has become a series of offenses that have continued unabated for six months,” Mason said. Mason has been an outspoken critic of Uber going back as far as 2015 and then again in 2016.

In response, Uber said in a statement that “the CPUC has been insistent in its demands that we release the full names and contact information of sexual assault survivors without their consent,” Uber said in a statement. “We opposed this shocking violation of privacy, alongside many victims’ rights advocates. Now, a year later, the CPUC has changed its tune: we can provide anonymized information — yet we are also subject to a $59 million fine for not complying with the very order the CPUC has fundamentally altered.”

Even if the ruling could be dubious, Uber does not have a great track record of complying with laws. Putting aside that Uber broke local laws in most countries it either previously or still does operate in, it was also linked to the theft of intellectual property from Google LLC.

Photo: ell-r-brown/Flickr