Uber Technologies Inc could pay nearly $19 million in penalties in Australia after the country’s competition regulator found it misled riders by warning cancellation fees even within a specified fee-free window.
Over a four-year period until the end of 2021, the ride-hailing app warned more than two million Australian customers seeking to cancel a trip within Uber’s free cancellation period that they could be charged , potentially leading riders to reconsider their cancellations, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Tuesday. Most services, including UberX, have a five-minute time period when a driver accepts a ride to cancel rides at no charge.
The regulator also found that for nearly two years, Uber’s app displayed incorrect fare estimates for the now defunct UberTaxi ride option.
In separate statements, Uber and the ACCC said they have agreed to seek approval from the Federal Court of Australia for fines totaling 26 million Australian dollars.
Uber said in a statement, “Since the ACCC has raised this, we have worked to streamline our in-app messages to make it clearer when or if cancellation fees will apply, so that riders always have certainty. ” Regulator Uber did not allege that Uber was charging cancellation fees at a time when no charges should have been in force, Uber said.
This is the latest legal battle for the ride-hailing giant. In November, the US Justice Department said it would sue Uber to collect wait-time fees from physically challenged passengers.
In August, the regulator of taxis and rental vehicles in New South Wales, Australia – home of Sydney – fined Uber and issued 13 correction notices following concerns such as driver fatigue and passenger complaints after a safety audit.
Uber has also faced penalties globally over issues including the classification of its drivers.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said Uber may have decided not to cancel its trip after some Australian riders received false warnings.
The ACCC said that in September, Uber amended its cancellation message for Australian services to let riders know they will not be charged if they ask to leave a trip during the duty-free period.
The Australian regulator said that in the nearly two years leading up to August 2020, Uber’s algorithms also falsely increased the estimated cost of bookings through its UberTaxi option, so that the actual fare was “almost always” cheaper than the displayed estimate.
The company said UberTaxi, introduced in Sydney in 2013 and discontinued in mid-2020, was neither popular nor well-publicized after the introduction of UberX in 2014.
“Ubertaxi trips in Sydney have always been a small part of trips on the platform, even if we apologize for that,” Uber said.
This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed