FTC is demanding civil penalties from Uber for deceiving customers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), twenty-one US States, and the District of Columbia have filed an amended complaint against Uber for misleading business practices.

Back in April, the FTC sued Uber for its deceptive billing and cancellation practices related to its Uber One subscription.

The antitrust supervisor accused the transport company of misleading customers. For example, Uber promised its users savings of $25 per month and $0 in delivery fees if they subscribed to an Uber One subscription.

However, some consumers claimed that they didn’t receive the promised monthly savings or were suddenly charged fees for deliveries.

In addition, Uber solemnly promised that users could cancel their subscription at any time. In practice, it was nearly impossible to repeal Uber’s subscription service. Customers were forced to navigate through 23 screens and take 32 actions to cancel their subscription.

Some users were told they had to contact customer support to cancel, but were given no way to contact them. Others claimed that Uber charged them for another billing cycle after they requested cancellation and were waiting to hear back from customer support.

“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel. The Trump-Vance FTC is fighting back on behalf of the American people. Today, we’re alleging that Uber not only deceived consumers about their subscriptions, but also made it unreasonably difficult for customers to cancel,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in April.

This week, the market regulator filed an amended complaint, which was joined by twenty-one US states, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

Unlike the original filing, the amended complaint includes a request for civil penalties for alleged violations of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) and state laws.

ROSCA requires online retailers to clearly disclose the terms of the service they are selling, obtain consumers’ consent before charging them for a service, and provide a simple way to cancel a recurring subscription.

The complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

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