The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly launched a criminal probe against Uber and its use of a software tool called “Greyball.” This software allegedly helped the ride-hailing company’s drivers dodge transportation regulators in cities where the service was still restricted, according to Reuters.

The New York Times originally reported on Uber’s use of Greyball back in March, though the software had been in place since late 2014. Greyball, according to the Times, used many methods to determine potential regulators and authorities in restricted cities, such as Boston, Las Vegas, and Portland Oregon; it utilized social media searches, credit card information, geolocation, and even tried to identity government-issued devices.

"Enforcement officials involved in large-scale sting operations meant to catch Uber drivers would sometimes buy dozens of cellphones to create different accounts," the Times wrote in March. "To circumvent that tactic, Uber employees would go to local electronics stores to look up device numbers of the cheapest mobile phones for sale, which were often the ones bought by city officials working with budgets that were not large."

Uber did admit to implementing Greyball, and said that “greyballing” refers to the practice of showing some customers a different version of the ride-hailing app than most customers see, comments made public in letters to Portland authorities last week as part of a civil probe. The company’s attorneys said the software was used “exceedingly sparingly” in the city, and that Uber had not employed Greyball since April 2015, when Portland began allowing the service to operate.

It’s important to note that at this point, it’s unclear if anyone will be charged in the criminal probe, as the investigation is still in its early stages, according to Reuters’ sources.  

The almost $70 billion company has had a rough 2017 so far, with more public relations disasters than most other businesses see in an entire year, from the viral #DeleteUber campaign that arose after President Trump’s first Muslim ban attempt; to a female Uber engineer’s account of rampant sexual harassment during her time with the company; and to that video of CEO Travis Kalanick berating an Uber driver who dared to complain about his wages, this year has definitely not been Uber’s best.

And we can’t forget about the lawsuit Uber is currently embroiled in with Waymo, Alphabet’s (GOOGL Quick QuoteGOOGL - Free Report) self-driving car unit. Waymo charged Uber and a former Google employee of stealing 14,000 documents that detail its proprietary self-driving technology.

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