The Federal Trade Commission is suing Uber, claiming the ride-share company makes it too difficult to cancel its subscription service, Uber One.
The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges the company charged consumers for Uber One without their consent, failed to deliver promised savings and made it difficult for users to cancel the service despite its “cancel anytime” policy.
“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel,” FTC Chairman Andrew N Ferguson said in a written statement.
“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.”
Examples of the alleged practices include customers being falsely promised $25 a month in savings, despite the subscription costing $9.99, and using small, grey text for information about Uber One, which is difficult for consumers to see.
Additionally, consumers claim they were enrolled without consent, with one customer telling the agency they were charged for Uber One but didn’t have an account.
Some who selected free trials reported being automatically charged for the service before their free trial ended. Uber tells customers they can cancel at no charge during the trial period.
When trying to cancel a subscription, “users can be forced to navigate as many as 23 screens and take as many as 32 actions to cancel,” the agency noted.
“If a customer tries to proceed with cancellation, Uber can require them to say why they want to cancel, urge them to pause their membership or, if that failed, present them with offers to stay,” the release stated.
“Some users are told they have to contact customer support to cancel but are given no way to contact them; others claim that Uber charged them for another billing cycle after they requested cancellation and were waiting to hear back from customer support.”
In the lawsuit, the FTC claims Uber’s alleged practices violate the FTC Act, which requires retailers to clearly disclose the terms of the service they are selling, obtain consumers’ consent before charging them and provide an easy way to cancel a recurring subscription.
