A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Uber Eats overcharged customers and claims that Uber One members get hit with hidden fees.
Canadians who frequently use Uber Eats to get food delivered could be owed a ton of money from the app, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of “every person resident in Canada.”
On May 28, Toronto-based law firm Koskie Minsky filed a proposed lawsuit against Uber Eats, claiming that the food delivery app was charging users with a secret “Service Fee” in addition to the advertised Delivery Fee.
Not only that, the suit also claims that Uber One users weren’t getting the true benefit of their subscriptions, because their “free deliveries” weren’t actually free.
Proposed class action claims Uber Eats misrepresented delivery costs
According to Koskie Minsky, Uber Eats misrepresented the true cost of delivery by only revealing a hidden Service Fee at the final stage of the transaction and often obscured it under Taxes & Other Fees.
This is known as ‘drip pricing’ and occurs when the cost of a product isn’t displayed upfront.
The Competition Bureau of Canada says customers “shouldn’t have to scroll down or read the fine print to find the total price of an item” and that the “only mandatory fees you should pay are the fixed ones imposed by the government on purchasers, such as sales tax.”
Koskie Minsky’s lawsuit also claims that Uber One members, who pay for a subscription to do away with delivery fees on eligible orders, were still hit with Service Fees.
“Regardless of whether the $15 minimum spend requirement is met, the Service Fee is charged to Uber One Class Members every time they place an order for delivery despite the Uber One subscription being advertised as providing for no delivery fees,” the lawsuit says.
“Uber One Class Members do not, in fact, benefit from no delivery fees as they are still required to pay the Service Fee, which is an additional delivery fee.”
If the lawsuit gets certified as class action, Canadian residents who placed an order for delivery using Uber Eats and paid a Service Fee on or after May 16, 2023 will be eligible. The total amount paid will be determined by the court.
Uber Canada says it plans to defend the lawsuit and is taking “these allegations seriously.”
Meanwhile, Uber rival DoorDash is being sued by Canada’s Competition Bureau for allegedly misleading consumers by advertising its services at lower prices than what customers would actually pay.
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