Uber to pay penalties after overcharging people with disabilities
2 Min Read
Uber was wrongfully charging disabled passengers wait-time fees concludes the US Justice Department.
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Uber expressed satisfaction with the agreement
The US Justice Department announced the resolution of a case with Uber Technologies Inc. in which the ride-hailing company was accused of wrongfully charging passengers with physical disabilities wait-time fees.
As per the settlement, Uber will "offer several million dollars in compensation" to more than 65,000 users who required more time to enter a car due to their disability and were charged a waiting fee, according to Justice Department.
In a suit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in November, the Justice Department requested that Uber modify its wait-fee policy and pay unspecified monetary damages and civil penalties.
On its account, Uber claimed that its wait-time policy was changed shortly before the lawsuit was filed last year.
“It has long been our policy to refund wait time fees for riders with a disability when they alerted us that they were charged, and prior to this matter being filed we made changes,” a spokesperson stated on Monday.
An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department Kristen Clarke said that “this agreement sends a strong message that Uber and other ride-sharing companies will be held accountable if their services discriminate against people with disabilities.”
Uber expressed satisfaction with the agreement on Monday.
Despite all of this, the company's stock rose 4.2 percent to $22.58 on Monday.
This is happening as Uber is in big trouble. More than 123,000 leaked secret documents have shown how Uber secretly lobbied governments, hid data from police, and bypassed laws in their global expansion.
Uber is in big trouble! pic.twitter.com/YTx6Q3Djb3
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 11, 2022
On July 11, hundreds of thousands of internal Uber files were leaked by European lobbyist, Mark MacGann, who was also Uber's former head of policy for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The files were obtained by The Guardian and shared with 42 media outlets, including the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
