FTC sues Uber, alleging ‘deceptive’ Uber One charges and cancellations

By Ramishah Maruf CNN New York The Federal Commerce Commission sued ride-hailing giant Uber Monday alleging deceptive billing and cancellation practices in its Uber One subscription provision The FTC alleged the company charged customers for Uber One a function for fee-free delivery and discounts on rides without their consent and made it too arduous for them to cancel despite the company s cancel anytime marketing RELATED Waymo robotaxis make up of Uber rides in Austin figures shows Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson mentioned in a press release Related Articles California Lyft Uber drivers push for billion wage settlement Tesla sets sights on Uber Lyft in California with ride-hail application Uber pushed back against the claims Its lawyers that represented the company throughout the FTC scrutiny including former FTC chair Tim Muris and former FTC commissioner Christine Wilson called it a rushed investigative process and mentioned the complaint was based on misunderstandings We are disappointed that the FTC chose to move forward with this action but are confident that the courts will agree with what we already know Uber One s sign-up and cancellation processes are clear simple and follow the letter and spirit of the law Uber does not sign up or charge consumers without their consent and cancellations can now be done anytime in-app and take majority people seconds or less the company noted in a report The FTC alleged Uber also failed to deliver promised savings for the Uber One subscription Though customers were promised savings of a month Uber does not account for the cost of the subscription up to month when calculating those savings the agency reported in the press release Customers were also allegedly enrolled without their consent and were charged before the billing date The lawsuit used an example of customers who mentioned they signed up for a free trial and were then automatically charged before the free trial even ended And when it came to cancelling the FTC declared users were forced to click through up to screens and take actions to cancel Several users are notified they have to contact customer encouragement to cancel but are given no way to contact them others claim that Uber charged them for another billing cycle after they requested cancellation and were waiting to hear back from customer patronage the press release announced The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and alleges Uber violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act The suit is one of the first major actions against Big Tech spearheaded by Ferguson s FTC under the Trump administration Like plenty of leaders in the industry Uber and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi each donated million respectively to Trump s inaugural fund An antitrust suit brought by the FTC against Meta s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp is also underway though that lawsuit was filed before Trump took office The-CNN-Wire Cable News Setup Inc a Warner Bros Discovery Company All rights reserved