Business
Uber Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over $1 ‘Safe Rides Fee’
Drivers with the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania protest on near Love Park in Philadelphia Oct. 8, 2014, as Uber and Lyft are making a concerted push to bring their ride-share services to Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Gralish)
Ellen Huet, FORBES
(Forbes.com)—Uber has been hit with class-action lawsuits from cab companies and Uber’s own drivers, but the newest group to enter the fray is Uber passengers.
Two Uber riders filed a class-action lawsuit against the car-service app company this week, claiming they should not have had to pay the $1 “Safe Rides Fee” Uber tacks on to each ride because the company’s background checks were misleadingly represented as “industry leading.”
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, is the third in the last month filed on behalf of Uber’s passengers. An Uber customer filed a class-action lawsuit on Dec. 3 over a $4 fee charged to passengers going to San Francisco International Airport to reimburse drivers. The lawsuit says the company pocketed the fee. A similar lawsuit filed in late November claims riders were overcharged for a fee at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
The most recent lawsuit seeks restitution for every $1 Safe Rides Fee charged to every U.S. Uber customer — which, given that Uber gave 140 million rides globally this year, would be a hefty sum.
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