Uber Class Settlement
A couple people sued Uber over their booking fee which they used to call a ‘Safe Ride Fee.’ The idea behind the fee is to make more money pay for Uber’s safety program – driver training, background checks, and vehicle inspections. Plaintiff’s allege that that they should not have had to pay the Safe Ride Fee because the company’s background checks were not “industry leading,” as Uber had claimed, and there have also been many safety breaches that happened during Uber rides.
There’s no form currently necessary to fill out to be part of this settlement. At the moment, we’re waiting for the judge to approve or reject the settlement. If approved, members of the class action will be notified by email.
Uber has agreed to pay $28.5 million to around 25 million riders and to stop using the Safe Ride Fee terminology. Going forward, the fee will be called a Booking Fee, and will cover safety and other operational expenses.
Who is Eligible?
The class includes passengers who took a trip in the U.S. between January 1, 2013 and January 31, 2016.
How Much Can We Get?
Being that $28.5 million is getting split up between 25 million people, that gives us a whopping $1.14 per person. The true amount is even less since the $28.5M amount is before lawyer fees; after those attorneys take their cut it will be less.
Payment will be offered as a choice of either a credit card refund or a credit to your rider account.
Final Thoughts
A $1 settlement seems kind of ridiculous, but lots of class action lawsuits end up something in that area. See all Class Action Lawsuits posts here.
Hat tip to Viewfromthewing and Techcrunch
Bloomberg reported on 8/31/2016 that the proposed settlement was rejected by the judge as being “woefully inadequate”:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-31/another-uber-settlement-is-rejected-this-time-over-riders-fee
Class action settlements with a $1 payout per person are kind of ridiculous, but also kind of the point. Uber dicked around and caused $30 million in damages. Without any individual person being harmed enough to make it worth suing, Uber and other companies would continue doing bad stuff if class action settlements weren’t around.