Key Takeaways
- DoorDash faces multiple lawsuits related to worker classification, tipping practices, and business practices.
- A class action settlement provided drivers a small payout, with the bulk going to lawyers.
- DoorDash settled with DC for $2.5 million over misleading tipping practices.
- Chicago sued DoorDash for deceptive business practices, including misleading fees and advertising.
- A wrongful death lawsuit claims a DoorDash driver caused a fatal accident while distracted.
- To file a lawsuit against DoorDash, consult an attorney to evaluate the case’s merit.
DoorDash is a great food delivery service for getting food delivered promptly when you do not feel like going out. It gives you local restaurant options, upfront pricing for delivery, and utilizes reputable drivers.
That does not mean it has not had issues from time to time. Those issues have resulted in specific actions that have involved district court, law enforcement, and even politicians.
Here is a rundown of the most prominent legal cases DoorDash and other delivery companies are contending within 2022.
Have There Been Lawsuits Against DoorDash?
There have been several lawsuits brought against DoorDash. There has been a DoorDash lawsuit brought by drivers, restaurants, government authorities, consumer protection departments, and customers.
Lawsuits are not unique to DoorDash Inc.
Other food delivery services have faced lawsuits over labor law violations, their restaurant rosters, charges, how tips are handled, etc.
The lawsuits have been filed in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and several other places across the USA.
Suits have alleged deceptive business practices, fraud, negligence, and violation of labor laws.
DoorDash Drivers Class Action Settlement
This suit was resolved with varying degrees of satisfaction.
The plaintiffs in the case feel that the settlement was far too low in terms of what workers will receive in settlement awards, so there might be subsequent action.
It works out to be about $130 per individual that joined the suit, provided that they adhered to the individual state requirements for eligibility.
The lawyers in the case will receive about $28 million of the $100 million settlement.
What it Was About
The plaintiffs allege that DoorDash was misclassifying them as independent contractors in the states of California and Massachusetts.
The settlement culminated in several class-action lawsuits filed over allegations of DoorDash violating labor laws and engaging in deceptive business practices.
Essentially, the plaintiffs allege DoorDash claimed its drivers, called “dashers,” were independent contractors, which saved the company money in wages and benefits.
The plaintiffs allege that the law does not allow a company to avoid paying fair wages and benefits by classifying everyone as an independent contractor.
In California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, DoorDash drivers were supposed to be classified as employees and receive the same rights and protections as other employees at other companies.
The drivers say they were responsible for costs related to DoorDash deliveries, including but not limited to gas, insurance, mileage, and wear and tear on their vehicles.
The driver says this was done, despite the company not paying them minimum wage.
The drivers allege that despite the lack of benefits and protection and low wages, they must follow precise instructions or risk being terminated.
Who Was Suing?
The company terminated DoorDash drivers and others for failing to maintain an adequate customer rating.
The drivers came from three states: California, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
What Were They Suing For?
The drivers were suing for fair compensation and forcing the company to classify them legally, which, in many cases, would result in them being classified as employees.
The settlement would mean that DoorDash would have to adhere to state and federal labor laws.
It also would mean that DoorDash drivers would enjoy increased wages and benefits.
What Was the Result?
The results were a settlement of $100 million that ended several lawsuits and broke down as follows: Lawyers get $28 million.
Drivers get the balance, pooled, and distributed to suit members.
Additional funds would be distributed evenly among suit members based on a formula.
DoorDash agreed to classify employees moving forward correctly.
What Does This Mean for DoorDash?
That remains to be seen.
Ideally, it means that the plaintiffs will be reclassified and enjoy the rights and benefits that employees of other companies receive.
If followed, it will likely reduce DoorDash’s overall profitability because the company will have to pay minimum wage and unemployment insurance.
It will also give drivers leverage in work requirements, labor union disposition, dispute recourse, and future issues related to DoorDash’s corporate policy.
DoorDash Tipping Lawsuit
DoorDash settled a lawsuit with the Washington DC Attorney General for $2.5 million, resolving allegations it used tips to subsidize driver pay.
The tipping issue has led to a class-action suit against DoorDash for its tipping policy.
What it Was About
DoorDash was widely criticized for using customer tips as part of a driver’s minimum base pay.
The practice was an unfair labor practice, but it also misled customers who thought their driver was receiving the tip above and beyond what DoorDash paid them.
The DC Attorney General alleged that DoorDash had violated the City’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
Who Was Suing?
The plaintiff, in this case, was the Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine.
What Were They Suing For?
DoorDash took tips left by customers and applied them to the driver’s regular pay, thus reducing the company’s outlay of cash in hourly payments.
The customer intended, and it was represented that the tip was in excess of any fees or charges.
DoorDash’s policy directly contradicted that assumption and implication.
DC sued to force DoorDash to return the tip monies to the drivers.
The company settled rather than risk a trial.
The settlement led to other suits that have been enveloped in a class action.
What Was the Result?
DoorDash settled and agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle the lawsuit.
It also agreed to clarify its tipping policy to customers and its drivers.
What Does This Mean for DoorDash?
DoorDash will have to pay some tip money back, likely more as other suits are filed.
However, any settlement will be significantly less compared to what the company made.
A settlement would be another chip in the reputation of the company.
Chicago DoorDash Lawsuit
The City of Chicago sued DoorDash and GrubHub for “deceptive and unfair business practices.”
The suit came about after many complaints from restaurants and consumers.
What it Was About
The suit alleges that DoorDash commits several violations in advertising, representation, tipping, and misrepresenting a delivery fee mandated by the City of Chicago when no such Chicago fee existed and no delivery workers were authorized to collect it.
Specifically, the City alleges DoorDash:
- Advertises order and delivery services from unaffiliated restaurants leaving the local restaurants and restaurant owners and staff to address complaints from customers that DoorDash drivers cause
- DoorDash Inc employs a “bait and switch” process of getting customers to initiate a purchase by promising small fees that are increased at the end of the transaction
- Hide menu prices that are significantly higher than prices the restaurant charges leading to customer service and deceptive business practice issues
- DoorDash misallocates tips to the detriment of its drivers
Who Was Suing?
The plaintiffs in the suit include Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Acting Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Commissioner Kenneth Meyer, and Corporation Counsel Celia Meza.
The suit is brought on behalf of DoorDash customers, the City of Chicago, and Chicago businesses and will be heard in Cook County Circuit Court.
What Were They Suing For?
The city asks that DoorDash be made to adhere to existing policies, alter deceptive policies, cease deceptive advertising and operations, pay a minimum of $2,000 per infraction, and for DoorDash to “disgorge” profits made by the violations.
What Was the Result?
The suit is ongoing.
What Does This Mean for DoorDash?
On its face, this could mean a significant payout on DoorDash.
It also means more public relations problems, specifically with the fee representation.
While the rest are somewhat subject to interpretation or proprietary policy, that seems to be a clear deceptive practice.
Interestingly, DooDash, in their initial statement about the suit, said nothing about the fee.
How this is resolved will also be instructive to other food delivery app companies.
DoorDash Wrongful Death Lawsuit
There have been multiple lawsuits, including wrongful death lawsuits against the food delivery platform for accidents, injury, and death caused by DoorDash drivers.
This portion of the article covers one accident involving a DoorDash driver in October of 2020.
In this case, DoorDash was sued last August for wrongful death in the case where a DoorDash driver struck and killed a woman.
What it Was About
A DoorDash Driver allegedly looked away from the road to verify a delivery address, lost control of his vehicle, and struck a woman working in her yard.
The delivery driver was charged with drug possession and vehicular homicide.
Further, in conjunction with other wrongful death suits brought against DoorDash, it is alleged the driver was responding to a text from the food delivery company or was reading directions about the delivery in the food delivery app.
DoorDash and the driver are named as defendants.
Additionally, the Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company and Goauto Insurance company are named defendants.
The suit alleges that DoorDash should have known the driver could not operate his vehicle properly, did not look into the driver’s background adequately, and should have known the driver was a safety risk.
Who Was Suing?
The suit is being brought by the family of the deceased.
What Were They Suing For?
The family seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
What Was the Result?
The lawsuit is pending.
What Does This Mean for DoorDash?
Presumably, given the driver was arrested for drug possession and found to have drugs in his system, DoorDash will revise (or has revised) its hiring policies for drivers.
Additionally, depending on the disposition of the criminal charges, DoorDash may be held liable for more than the amount asked in damages.
How to File a Lawsuit Against DoorDash
Filing a claim against DoorDash follows the process of any other type of lawsuit.
That process depends on the type of case you are filing.
The best first step is to talk to an attorney and see if your case is valid and if you can file it against the company.
Do You Have a Case?
That is impossible to know without knowing the details of the case.
An attorney will give you a free consultation, and you can describe the details of your case.
They then will tell you if you have a case, if it is worth pursuing, whether they can take the case, and reasonable expectations for an outcome.
Step by Step Instructions
The only step you need to take is to talk to an attorney and present your allegations.
There are consumer protection groups that can help you, but they likely will direct you to an attorney if your case has merit.
You can do either online.
DoorDash does offer dispute resolution services on their website, but if you have any legal case or any case that could result in damages awarded to you, you need to contact an attorney.
If you discuss your situation with anyone from DoorDash, do not agree to anything until you discuss it with an attorney.
Final Word
DoorDash is facing several lawsuits of varying importance and potential impact.
If you meet certain criteria, you might be able to join a class-action lawsuit, or you may have a case to bring on your own.
Regardless, the proper first step is to discuss your situation with a lawyer; the consultation is free, and you will find out for sure if you have a chance at winning a case against DoorDash.
Are all dashers considered 1099 drivers?
Recently I’ve received delivery info, showing a delivery pay amount, once accepted, find out it includes 2 deliveries and pickup and delivery to almost the same location pays differently, my tips are included in the total driver pay, if I make 2 separate deliveries, why don’t Door Dash pay for 2 peak hours fees, and receiving not a penny extra for waiting 45 minutes to get the food, I know these business practices are unethical, but are they illegal? Thanks in advance for any assistance
Doordash allows anyone to open an account under a false name using a stolen credit card that lists a different name on it. That happened to me and Doordash won’t allow the charges to be expunged
Doordash is taking my money from earnings and keeping it. The reps are saying they can’t see what I’m talking about, yet it’s right there in plain sight on the app in the earnings tab. This is the second time in April 2023 they’ve done this. Example: Says they paid me $319.81 my actual deposit was only $295.00 They are keeping my money and it’s there in the earnings tab in a section called -Other pay $23.12. I sent screenshot to them still no monetary mitigation from them.
Hi Dixie
I don’t think Doordash is cheating you, but they have a screwed up way of paying.
Prop 22 forced Doordash to pay a supplement on your pay if you didn’t meet the minimum..that’s every week for me.
So look at your earnings from the week before. Then look at the current week. It will say $xx.xx dollars was added to last week’s payment, so they deduct that sum from the next week, so it might be the week before they paid you an extra $30-$40, but you hot that sum the week before.
Now, if that’s not the case, then talk to a legal professional. We are entitled to 69 cents per mile that we drive. Doordash only pays from the restaurant to the customer’s place, and no return mileage. DD only pays some 38 cents of that 69 cents, and the tips are to cover the other part.
You have to pay for gas, car washes, insurance, repairs, phone. Etc, and so at best you break even, maybe.
Go back and see if this is the case with doordash. No one is better at wage theft (and we don’t get a wage, only gas and tips) than the food divery companies.
Seriously, doing Doordash has caused me to have higher blood pressure when most of my 68 years, I’ve had relatively low to normal blood pressure. 😑
Their app is constantly malfunctioning and bumping me off my scheduled drives when i ‘pause orders’ needing to go to the restroom for few minutes.
Then it wont let me sign on again for rest of whole day. what is up with this??
Doordash has been reducing my acceptance pay for the last three years on various orders for no reason. I do know for a fact that the Support Agents can see our pay one man accidentally let me know that they were being paid $39 on a catered order that I was only paid $10 for why are they keeping the majority of the pay. I keep accepting orders at a certain amount and my payout is less yet Doordash will not acknowledge it or change it. They claim i need to keep screenshots if i want to be compensated correctly. What a bad buiness practice they are in by ripping of drivers constantly.
DoorDash’s app is almost designed to make you accept deliveries, and there have been times when deliveries have showed up as accepted when I am sure I didn’t accept them. You have to hit 3-4 buttons to decline an order and only one to accept one. They also change the number of deliveries without notifying you ) I’ve gotten two deliveries when I know I accepted one) and the delivery location sometimes after you accept. I’m very careful about looking at delivery details including miles against pay when I accept orders, and several times, the itinerary, mileage, and even direction of the delivery has changed. Example: the other day, I accepted a delivery that was $8 for approximately 4 miles, but after accepting the order (travel to the restaurant was less than a quarter-mile), the customer’s home was over 10 miles away in a heavy traffic area and would have taken me well over an hour to do; minimum wage in my city is $15/hr, and with DD you also have to pay your own mileage, gas, etc. so why would I accept such an offer? I gave it back to the store and called DD to unassign it, but it’s ridiculous that they do this. Next time you accept an order, look at their estimated mileage and what you actually do. Small estimation errors are expected, like less than a quarter mile, but you shouldn’t be doing miles more than you were told initially. I’ve stopped working with them and actually looking to join a class action against them since the US Dept of Labor, after having several years to catch up on regulating the gig economy, has decided they’re going to continue playing confused and naive; I’m not even sure what they do since it seems the state DOL’s do all the work. I know those class actions don’t make much for anyone but the lawyers but as long as it’s not burdensome on me, I feel I need to do something against the blatant abuse of labor laws and drivers. Good luck to you all out there!
Every since Doordash started paying the hourly rate, the base pay for the shop and deliver orders that require additional work does not seem any different from the restraunt orders. Aother words shop and deliver orders are not high paying orders.
the hurly pay sucks is a rip off I drove 14 miles total to get paid 4.50 cents cause I did not take a hour to deliver no tip also it should be a tip apply per order just like in most restaurants do already most restaurants do now in days in there delivery services I don’t see why it has to be different also I don’t get any gas millage pay thing got to change
They are still keeping our tips, who tips $2.50 everytime, every tip. And my brother uses door dash and said you have to tip at least $5 on their app.
For the month of September I completed over 640+ deliveries in Mt quest to become top dasher for the month of October, but on September 30th 2023 around 9pm I was was dashing on Oxford Ms when I noticed trouble with my dasher app, I tried to log back in but was denied access, I called doordash and was told that my dasher account has been deactivated. Reason being some one saying that they did not receive their order. I filed an appeal and was reactivate but was told that I didn’t make top dasher because I only had 64 deliveries for the month of September. I had to go back and forth with them ro correct thos matter for over a week. Now they deactivated me again for several false claims. Again dealing with false claims of creating an unsafe environment/ sexual harassment first email, then second email claims creating an unsafe environment, then the third claim is delivering an order to late.All claims came in the same hour. I was not given an option to appeal through the app before being deactivated. I was deactivated, I went through the appeal process and was denied two days later. I know for a fact that the allegations are false because I never made contact with the customer . The order was never delivered because customer was being difficult and the address was incorrect.
Door dash will unassign an order & not pay you after you drop off an order & have proof.
I have pictures from the customer service where they claim delivery was reassigned at 12:20 but when i tell them i delivered order at 12:13 they claim another driver delivered the order at 12:12:34. How woukd another driver get the order & deliver it 26 seconds before me? Only for it to be unassigned 7 mins after the orders was completed?
Dashers:
If you’ve been deactivated and want confidential legal responses from a retired lawyer who worked for Doordash send your complaint in 50 words or less by email to Consumer Rights Defenders attn: Steve Nelson at “sncr.defenders@yahoo.com” You will get an email response and if you want some actual assistance suing, they can help and only charge for typing…the consult is free. Be sure to ask about “the Subpoena”…. .
Thanks all,
Steve
in the last 2 wks, door dash started paying me diffrently, like not paying from monday through sunday, but tuesday thur sunday, and leaves monday pay suspended, and adds it on later, its just odd, and i track my miles, door dash will say 12.000 miles, when its really 20.000 plus