What just happened? The FTC has filed a lawsuit against Uber over allegations that it engaged in deceptive billing and cancellation practices related to its Uber One subscription service. According to the agency, the ride-hailing giant made the process of cancelling needlessly difficult, charged some people during their free trial, and even signed up customers without their consent.
Uber launched Uber One in 2021 with the lure of free delivery on eligible Uber Eats orders, discounts, priority service, and exclusive offers. The subscription costs $10 per month or $96 per year.
The FTC’s complaint alleges that Uber made ending Uber One subscriptions intentionally difficult, despite promising customers they could “cancel anytime.”
It’s claimed that some customers who signed up for a free trial were charged before the trial ended, even though Uber said they could cancel freely during this period.
The complaint adds that for some people, ending an active subscription involved navigating through up to 23 screens and taking 32 actions.
The agency alleges that Uber would remove the option to cancel from its app if a customer was within 48 hours of their billing date. In these cases, users were told to contact customer support without being told how to reach them. There are also cases of customers who did reach customer support and were promised a return call but were billed for another cycle while waiting to hear back.
Some customers complained that they were signed up for Uber One without giving their consent. One person said they were charged despite not having an Uber account.
The FTC also disputes Uber’s claim that Uber One saves customers $25 per month due to its benefits (the website now claims it is $27 per month). The agency says the figure is inaccurate and doesn’t account for the subscription’s monthly cost when calculating savings.
Uber said it was “disappointed” that the FTC had chosen to move forward with the lawsuit. It said that canceling Uber One can now be done anytime in-app and takes most people less than 20 seconds. It added that it does not sign up or charge customers without their consent.
The FTC alleges that Uber’s practices violate the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA).
“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel,” said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson. “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.”
