Uber To Pay Passengers With Disabilities $2.2 Million
Uber has agreed to pay more than $2m (£1.68m) to settle a US government lawsuit that its wait time charges discriminate against customers with disabilities.
The firm also agreed to stop charging users with disabilities in the future.
More than 1,000 people have complained about the fees, which are often triggered if it takes more than two minutes to get into a car.
Uber said its policy is to refund waiting fees for passengers with disabilities.
When resolving the lawsuit, the taxi company denied wrongdoing.
“Our policy has long been to refund waiting times for passengers with disabilities when they alerted us that they were being charged,” the company said, adding that it made changes prior to the lawsuit to automatically cancel the fee for waiting time for passengers with disabilities, when Uber is notified that they have been charged.
Uber began charging for waiting times in select cities in 2016, eventually expanding the practice, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department in November.
The average fee was less than 60 cents, the company said at the time.
Under the terms of the deal, Uber agreed to pay more than $1.7 million to approximately 1,000 complaining passengers, as well as another $500,000 to some people identified by the Justice Department.
