Lyft Agrees to $1.95M ‘Prime Time’ Surcharge Class Action Settlement

Lyft agrees to pay $1.95 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by drivers in California alleging the company skimmed money from “prime time” surcharges.

Lead plaintiffs allege in their class action lawsuit that Lyft told passengers that the “prime time” surcharge levied during busy times went to Lyft drivers; however, the company was actually taking an additional commission for itself.

The Lyft class action claims that the surcharge was a form of gratuity, making it illegal for the company to take under California law.

According to the preliminary agreement in the Lyft class action settlement “Starting in December 2013, during periods of high rider demand relative to driver supply, Lyft began charging riders a premium (‘Prime Time Premium’), in addition to the base price for a ride. Plaintiffs allege that Lyft told customers that the Prime Time Premium ‘goes entirely to your Driver’ or is ‘for your driver,’ in order to incentivize drivers to ‘drive during the busiest times.’ Plaintiffs further allege that, in approximately August 2014, despite telling customers that the Prime Time Premium goes to the driver (which Plaintiffs allege made it a type of gratuity), Lyft began treating the Premium as a component of the base fare from which it took a commission for itself.”

Lyft denies the claims under the terms of the settlement, but agrees to pay $1.95 million to California Lyft drivers who gave at least one “prime time” ride at any time starting August 2014 until April 2017.

This settlement is in addition to a $27 million settlement Lyft agreed to pay to exit a class action lawsuit brought by Lyft workers alleging the ride share company misclassified them as independent contractors.

“To receive a Settlement Payment, a Class Member must timely submit a Claim Form, must not have submitted a request for exclusion, and must be eligible for a payment under the Plan of Allocation,” states the preliminary Lyft class action settlement agreement. “Each Class Member who satisfies these criteria is an Authorized Claimant. The Settlement Administrator will calculate the number of points to which each Authorized Claimant is entitled based on the amount of unrefunded commissions he or she earned for Prime Time Rides during various phases of the class period, as well as the total number of Rides driven.”

The points allocated to each Class Member will depend on the number of prime time rides and when they were given. Points will be doubled and even tripled for drivers who gave a large number of rides during the class period.

“The parties agreed to the Settlement Amount after a day-long mediation and several months of arms’-length negotiations facilitated by an experienced and well-respected private mediator,” says the Lyft class action settlement.

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 lead plaintiffs are represented by Jahan C. Sagafi, Relic Sun, Rachel Bien and Michael J. Scimone of Outten & Golden LLP.

The Lyft Driver Prime Time Surcharge Class Action Lawsuit is Zamora, et al. v. Lyft Inc., Case No. 3:16¬cv-02558, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: The Lyft Driver Prime Time Surcharge class action settlement website is available.  Check out settlement details and get the claim form here.