SAN FRANCISCO — Uber said on Tuesday that it was eliminating forced arbitration agreements for employees, riders and drivers who make sexual assault or harassment claims against the company.

Before they could use Uber’s ride-hailing app, customers have had to consent to a terms-of-service agreement that required them to resolve any legal claims with the company in an arbitration hearing, rather than in open court. Now, customers can take those claims to court, the company said.

The decision to yield to pressure from critics who had pushed Uber to forgo the controversial legal practice is the company’s latest move to improve its badly tarnished image since Dara Khosrowshahi took over as chief executive last August.

With hopes for an initial public offering sometime in 2019, Uber is eager to move past a series of scandals that rocked the company over the past year and is trying to distance itself from behavior that prompted a grass-roots campaign urging riders to #DeleteUber.