Chicago, Uber Reach $10M Settlement

Facts

• On Monday, Uber agreed to a $10M settlement with Chicago following an investigation that found the company had listed restaurants on its food delivery apps, Uber Eats and Postmates, without their knowledge and violated the city's fee cap.
• According to the city’s lawyers, more than $5M will pay for damages to the affected restaurants, while $1.5 will reimburse the city for its two-year investigation.
• Previously, Uber repaid more than $3.3M to the restaurants for charging them commissions exceeding Chicago's 15% cap. Now restaurants will be compensated both for the excessive fees and for being listed without permission.
• Uber Eats and Postmates – in addition to other apps, including Seamless, Grubhub, and DoorDash – have been accused of copying online menus to their platforms unbeknownst to the restaurants. After customers ordered through the apps, a courier would allegedly call them into the restaurant.
• Chicago has also sued Grubhub and DoorDash, and those cases are ongoing. Restaurants can apply for compensation online by Jan. 29.

Sources: TechCrunch, Business Insider, and Yahoo Finance.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Daily Meal. Uber always seems to be engulfed in some sort of scandal, and this latest settlement proves its practice of prioritizing growth over ethics. From mistreating its employees to scamming restaurants, it seems the company may be financially prosperous, but it's morally bankrupt. More needs to be done to keep Uber and companies like it in check.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Robb Report. Apps like Uber Eats can be extremely helpful to restaurants that want to connect with customers who might otherwise be unreachable. Unfortunately, sometimes the company gets too aggressive. But in this case, as in others, it has made financial amends, and hopefully, they’ll be able to continue a fruitful relationship with the restaurant business.