Uber to pay millions to settle lawsuit for overcharging customers with disabilities

Olafimihan Oshin and The Hill via Nexstar Media Wire

2 years ago

An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Palatine, Ill., Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. As Uber pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labor and taxi laws and used a “kill switch″ to thwart regulators and law enforcement. Uber also channeled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy. That's according to a report released Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

(The Hill) – Uber reached a settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday, agreeing to pay millions to customers who were allegedly overcharged due to their disability.

In a news release, DOJ said Uber has committed to waiving wait time fees for customers who need more time to get into a car due to their disability, or refund disabled customers who don’t get a waiver beforehand.

The company will also pay back some 65,000 eligible riders for double the amount they were charged in wait time fees, which the DOJ said could add up to millions of dollars.

Additionally, it will pay more than $1.7 million to more than one thousand customers who have complained about being charged wait fees due to their disability, and another $500,000 to others who say they were harmed by the company.

“People with disabilities should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability, which is exactly what Uber’s wait time fee policy did,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

“This agreement sends a strong message that Uber and other ridesharing companies will be held accountable if their services discriminate against people with disabilities,” she added.

The department filed a lawsuit against Uber in November 2021, alleging that the company violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against citizens with disabilities.

The lawsuit said that beginning in April 2016, Uber started to charge passengers wait time fees, usually beginning two minutes after a vehicle shows up at the pickup location and until the car started its trip.

The department said the company failed to modify its policy for disabled passengers despite knowing it was being applied to disabled passengers.

The Hill has reached out to Uber for comment on the settlement.

It comes after more than 500 female passengers filed a separate lawsuit against Uber alleging that they were sexually assaulted by company-contracted drivers.