Uber Will Pay Over $2 Million to Disabled Riders After Charging Them With Waiting Fees, and It Might Have to Pay Millions More

In a settlement with the Department of Justice, the company will pay over $2 million to disabled riders.

Reuters via BI

If you have to wait more than two minutes for your ride, you will be charged a waiting time fee. According to the help page on the policy, the rate varies depending on location.

In November of 2021, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the company, saying it discriminated against disabled people who needed more time to get into a car.

The DOJ said in a statement Monday that over 1,000 riders would be compensated for being charged wait fees.

A draft complaint notice attached to the settlement agreement stated that the 1,000 people who complained would get $600 each. Each person could make up to $1,700 from the pot.

$500,000 will be distributed among other harmed individuals, according to the DOJ. The number of people it identified was not specified.

It said that the accounts of over 60,000 riders would be credited with double the amount of wait time fees they were charged.

It could amount to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in compensation.

The DOJ's press statement said that people with disabilities should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability.

"We're pleased to have reached this agreement with the Department of Justice, and look forward to continuing to help everyone move easily around their communities," the spokesman said.

Prior to this matter being filed, we made changes so that any rider who shares that they have a disability would have wait time fees waive, and it has always been our policy to refunds wait time fees for riders with a disability when they alert us that they were charged.

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