Uber, Background Check Provider Settle FCRA Class Action Lawsuit

Following a settlement reached in April, plaintiffs in an Uber background check class action lawsuit have dismissed their claims against Uber’s background check provider Hirease LLC.

The dismissal would let defendant Hirease out of a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action lawsuit brought by a group of Uber job applicants.

These plaintiffs claim defendants Uber and Hirease violated the FCRA and applicable state laws by making adverse employment decisions based on background checks the applicants never had a chance to contest or correct.

The parties submitted their proposed Uber class action settlement for court approval this past April. Under terms of the Uber FCRA settlement, Uber would pay a total of $7.5 million to Class Members affected by the allegedly unlawful background checks.

The company would also be responsible for the named plaintiffs’ service awards, court costs and attorneys’ fees, plus payments to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

The plaintiffs and Hirease filed their agreed request for dismissal on May 30. If granted, the requested dismissal would be with prejudice as to the named plaintiffs’ individual claims. Their putative Class claims would be dismissed without prejudice, however, leaving open the possibility of reasserting those claims later.

This Uber background check litigation began in November 2014, with two separate Uber class action lawsuits brought by plaintiffs Ronald Gillette and Abdul Kadir Mohamed.

Mohamed, who drove for Uber Black in Boston, alleged he was denied the opportunity to drive for Uber X based on the results of a background check conducted by Hirease.

He alleges he never got a copy of the consumer report on which the denial was based, contrary to an email from Hirease telling him he had received a copy. The plaintiff also says he never got the required “pre-adverse action notice” that would have afforded him an opportunity to contest and explain the contents of the report.

By the time he received the denial, Mohammed claims, he had already spent $25,000 on a new car to satisfy Uber X vehicle standards. He says he was also denied access to the Uber driver app, use of which is required for Uber drivers.

Mohamed consolidated his Uber class action lawsuit with Gillette in October 2015. The two plaintiffs have since been joined by plaintiffs Shannon Wise, Brandon Farmer and Meghan Christenson, all of whom say they were denied work as either drivers or corporate employees for Uber.

Members of the proposed settlement Class would include all persons who were the subject of a background check or consumer report requested by Uber before Jan. 3, 2015.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by Laura L. Ho, Andrew P. Lee and William C. Jhaveri-Weeks of Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho; Tina Wolfson, Robert Ahdoot, Theodore W. Maya, and Bradley K. King of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC; and Elisa Della-Piana of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Uber Unlawful Background Check Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Uber FCRA Litigation, Case No. 3:14-cv-05200, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: September 2017, the Uber background check class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: On Jan. 25, 2018, a group of Uber drivers urged a federal judge to grant final approval to a $7.5 million settlement agreement in a class action accusing the ride share company of violating the Fair Credit and Reporting Act, despite objections.