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Grubhub Hidden Fees Lawsuit Overview:
- Why: DC alleges that Grubhub engages in several deceptive and unlawful practices.
- Who: The District of Columbia is suing Grubhub.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in District of Columbia superior court.
The District of Columbia is suing Grubhub for “unfair and deceptive” practices, including creating fake restaurant websites and pushing costs onto restaurants even during its COVID-19 “Supper for Support” promotion.
Filed by DC’s Attorney General Karl A. Racine, the lawsuit details eight specific practices that indicate Grubhub’s disregard of “consumers’ right to truthful information at every step of the process.”
The lawsuit sees Grubhub’s alleged behavior as “an apparent effort to optimize its revenue.” In 2020 alone, Grubhub generated about $1.8 billion in revenue, according to court documents.
Racine seeks restitution, civil penalties, other relief and “to permanently enjoin these deceptive business practices.”
Grubhub Allegedly Misrepresents Fees, Ordering Options to Consumers
The lawsuit calls out Grubhub’s “bait-and-switch scheme” in which it told customers that they would only have to pay Grubhub a delivery fee while “deceptively obscuring” its service fee and, if applicable, small order fee for orders less than $10.
Even Grubhub+ customers, who pay $9.99 per month and are promised “unlimited free delivery,” have to pay the service fee on delivery orders, according to the lawsuit.
Grubhub also “deceptively advertises” that customers can “order online for free” although this applies only to pickup orders.
The lawsuit also claims that Grubhub often displays incorrect local prices despite advertising local restaurants’ menus.
Grubhub Allegedly Fails to ‘Adequately’ Disclose Deceptive Practices
Grubhub also deceived restaurants. Grubhub lists over 1,000 restaurants on its platform that do not have a contractual relationship with Grubhub “without the restaurants’ consent and without adequately disclosing to consumers” the lack of relationship, the lawsuit says.
GrubHub also created “Routing Telephone Numbers” and hundreds of “microsites” each meant to look like a restaurant’s own phone number or website. Orders made through these outlets were still funneled through Grubhub, which then charged restaurants a separate commission “without adequately disclosing that fact to consumers,” according to court documents.
Finally, Grubhub took advantage of the pandemic-related rush to support local businesses with its “Supper for Support” promotion in which consumers were promised a discount on select orders. “Contrary to its advertisements, this promotion did not actually support restaurants as the restaurants, not Grubhub, were required to foot the full cost of the $10 off promotion,” the lawsuit says. The restaurants were also responsible for paying commissions on the full price before the discount.
Have you used Grubhub and been surprised by fees at the end? Leave a comment below and tell us about your experience!
The District of Columbia is represented by Karl A. Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia, et al.
The Grubhub Hidden Fees Lawsuit is District of Columbia v. Grubhub Holdings Inc. et al., in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
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190 thoughts onGrubhub Class Action Claims Company Deceives Customers, Restaurants in Several Schemes
Add me too please
Please add me to your list! Grubhub has given my account violations because I have had to wait at restaurants for over 40 minutes and would have another order to pickup. I spoke to three different customer service reps. Once I would finally get the order that I have waited on, they would reassign the order which would cause an account violation. Also, if you get over a $10.00 tip, the delivery pay would be 0.
I have driven for GrubHub for several months now and I’ve had several deliveries change the number from what I was supposed to get in my earnings to an amount that was less than the original advertised amount I would get for the delivery. Not only that but when you do have an issue as a driver for GrubHub they have you call the driver care driver care will redirect you to other departments such as billing and HR and such however these departments all then redirect you back to driver care there is no one else that you can talk to but the driver care and they are extremely limited in their resources as to what they can do and offer help for drivers. Just within this last week I have had to screenshot my tasks before I accept them to prove that they are changing not just the pay amount but also the estimated mileage for the delivery. I have a plethora of evidence and screenshots from my phone that support my claims. I would like to be added to the list because I think this lawsuit should be expanded to drivers who have been taken advantage of as well cuz if they’ve been taking a handful of dollars out of my pocket they do it with all the other thousands of drivers they have they’re skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars a day from their drivers.
See what they do at the top always trickles down and affects everyone else so no wonder drivers are often upset or give poor customer service it is because they are being duped by the company they work for.
Please come to Seattle and give us a chance to join because not only are they screwing us over on exuberant fees I have pay fees in the area of three and four dollars for restaurants that if I wasn’t being lazy I could probably ride my bike to not only that they increase the amount on the menus so if you look at the restaurants menu a taco might be two dollars that same taco will be four dollars when you order through GrubHub so they’re collecting service fees they’re inflating the price of the food and asking us to tip on top of all of that these business practices should have been called out.
I have tried to stop subscription to no luck so I would like to join lawsuite they owe me 76.37 and time and trouble
Dispute it with your credit card company if you are in fact telling the truth. Ibdon’t mean any disrespect but I found over the years people comment just to comment but in fact if you are really having problems I called my credit card company disputed the charge show them where I canceled the service in account settings and they will shut that down and refund you your money .
Please add me. I drive for GrubHub. They totally screwed me over with a lot of unethical crap last year. I went months without work because of them.
Please add me. I have used all of thare services and all of them charge several fees that are sketchy when you’re paying them for an annual subscription that is supposed to negate the fees.
Please add me. Grubhub has missions for drivers and doesn’t pay out when we achieve it. They also cancel orders and don’t pay the cancelation fee to the drivers. They owe me a lot of money I’ve earned and they refused to pay.
Please add me. I drive for grubhub and they’ve screwed me out of pay MANY times.
please addme to your list and believe me i should know more than anyone i am never doing business with them again never ever
I started an order with Grubhub for a chicken restaurant near me (Texas). The price on the menu item changed every time I added to cart. Items were increasing 16.7% to 20.7%. I messaged Grubhub as I thought restaurant. They began texting with me, then never came back. I switched to a different chicken restaurant and no changes between menu and cart price. Started searching online to see if happening to others and this website came up. I will be switching to a different delivery app.
Hi there! I have direct experience with both driving and ordering on these apps. They have disgusting business practices, and expect customers and drivers to be polite while they slowly screw your wallet out of your hand. Disgusting. Please add me! I live in new york and am close to the problem! Id have no issues testifying in court!