FTC Sues Uber Over Alleged Deceptive Subscription Practices, Company Denies Wrongdoing

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc. on Monday, alleging the ride-hailing and delivery firm enrolled consumers into its Uber One subscription service without proper consent and made cancellation unnecessarily difficult, violating federal consumer protection laws.

The complaint, filed following a year-long investigation, claims Uber misled customers by advertising potential savings without properly disclosing the $9.99 monthly subscription cost and obscured key terms in small or greyed-out text. The FTC also alleges Uber charged users automatically after free trials ended and created a cumbersome cancellation process, which in some cases required navigating up to 23 screens and completing as many as 32 actions.

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“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. “The Trump-Vance FTC is fighting back on behalf of the American people.” The lawsuit follows the agency’s new “click to cancel” rule, finalized in October 2024, which is set to take effect on May 14 and requires companies to make canceling subscriptions as simple as signing up.

Uber strongly denied the FTC’s allegations and criticized the agency for what it called a rushed process. “Uber does not sign up or charge consumers without their consent, and cancellations can now be done anytime in-app and take most people 20 seconds or less,” a company spokesperson said. Uber added that it had previously required customers to contact support to cancel within 48 hours of signing up, but that policy has since changed.

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Uber’s legal representatives also pushed back against the FTC’s methods. Christine Wilson, Uber’s current outside counsel and a former FTC commissioner, said the complaint was based on “new and unvetted allegations” introduced late in the investigation. Former FTC chair Tim Muris, who represented Uber earlier in the probe, claimed the case relied on “misunderstandings of both the facts and the law.”

Uber One had over 30 million members across 34 countries as of 2024, with the company projecting more than $1 billion in membership fee revenue this year. The FTC is seeking to bar Uber from continuing its alleged practices and to impose financial penalties.