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Uber will have to compensate people with disabilities for abuse in charging fees

Information continues to come to light that calls into question the allegedly dubious way of working of Uber, the famous American mobility and services company. If last week we talked about how Uber expanded by committing illegalities while lobbying politicians for help, this has been made known how he scammed disabled people with unrealistic rates and unfair for which you will have to pay millions of dollars in claims.

The events have occurred in recent years, but it was not until 2021 that a lawsuit was filed by the US government. Accusing the company of violating the ADA, the acronym in English for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Uber will have to compensate thousands of people with disabilities for the abuse in charging waiting fees

This is how Uber acted

The malpractice consisted of adding an additional cost to the trips if people, the vast majority with mobility problems, took more than two minutes to get into the vehicle that was parked and waiting for them. Some charges that, according to said law, discriminate against people with disabilities who normally need help and more time to be able to access and board said vehicles.

Usually these people need wheelchairs or walkers to be able to move forward. Also blind people often have greater difficulty even finding the UBER car waiting for them. The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all social and economic areas, from employment, education, transportation, and the use and enjoyment of places both public and private.

The payment that Uber will have to face

Nevertheless, Uber’s position has not been what the complainants expected. In fact, it continues without admitting the irregularities and, in addition, has tried to resolve the cases out of court. Finally, it will return double the waiting fees charged to more than 65,000 people with disabilities who suffered these surcharges and 1.7 million dollars to more than 100,000 passengers who complained of having paid time fees higher than those stipulated.

“People with disabilities should not feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability, which is exactly what Uber’s wait-time fare policy did,” said Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the Division of Department of Justice Civil Rights in a statement, “This settlement sends a message that Uber and other ride-sharing companies will be held accountable if their services discriminate against people with disabilities.”

But beware, the thing does not end there because Uber will have to ipso facto eliminate said waiting time fees for absolutely all passengers who need more time to get into the cars due to a disability. You will also need to advertise this wait time fee waiver program to users and expedite customer service reimbursement for these passengers who were illegally charged waiting time fees.

For its part, Uber has wanted to be conciliatory with the decision of the justice and a company spokesperson has stated that, “we are pleased to have reached this agreement with the Department of Justice, and look forward to continuing to help everyone move easily (…) it has long been our policy to refund waiting time fees for passengers with a disability when we were alerted that they were charged, and before this issue was brought up, we made changes so that any passengers who share who have a disability have waiting time fees automatically exempted.”

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