Uber Agrees to Pay Penalties After Overcharging People With Disabilities

The wait-time fee usually applies two minutes after a standard Uber arrives at a pickup location and is charged until the car begins its trip. Uber previously said the average wait-time fee charged to riders is less than 60 cents.

In November, the Justice Department asked in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that Uber modify its wait-fee policy and pay unspecified monetary damages and civil penalties.

Uber said it modified its wait-time policy shortly before the suit 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 spokesman said Monday.

“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,”

Kristen Clarke,

an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department said.

Uber said Monday it was pleased to have reached the agreement.

The company’s shares were up around 6% in midday trading Monday.

The Justice Department agreement settles one of Uber’s legal difficulties.

Last year, a California judge said that a 2020 ballot measure that allowed Uber,

Lyft Inc.,

DoorDash Inc.

and others to continue treating their drivers as independent contractors in the state was unconstitutional. The companies are appealing the ruling.

Uber and others had mounted the most expensive ballot measure in California history, asking that voters exempt them from reclassifying their drivers as employees. The companies won the 2020 vote.

Uber lost a driver reclassification battle in the U.K. last year, forcing the company to offer new benefits to drivers there such as paid vacation days and pension contributions.

Write to Preetika Rana at [email protected]