Agreement between Uber and American justice to adapt its service to people with disabilities

UPDATE DAY

The United States Department of Justice announced on Monday that it had reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Uber platform, which was accused of not having adapted its service to people with disabilities.  

“Under the terms of this agreement, Uber will award several million dollars in damages to more than 65,000 riders who were charged discriminatory surcharges because of their disability,” the department said in a statement.

< p>Disabled users sometimes paid more for their trips because they could not get into the car quickly enough, because since 2016, Uber had implemented a financial penalty imposed on the customer when the driver waits more than two minutes at the fixed meeting point in advance (five minutes for Uber Black or SUV customers).

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Uber in federal court in California in November, arguing that “many mobility-impaired riders take more than two minutes to board or load a vehicle, for a variety of reasons.”

Drivers cannot change the settings of the trip and avoid that customers with reduced mobility are penalized.

With this agreement valid for two years, Uber commits to not charging wait times for all passengers who certify that they need more time to board an Uber car due to a disability.

The company will reimburse 65,000 passengers for double the waiting costs they incurred, “which could represent hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation”. 

< p>And it will pay more than $1.7 million to more than a thousand riders who complained about Uber being charged wait times due to their disabilities, plus $500,000 to others. individuals affected, identified by the ministry.

“People with disabilities should not have to feel like second-class citizens, or be punished because of their disability, which was exactly what what was Uber's waiting time policy doing,” said Kristen Clarke, a senior Justice Department official, in the statement.

Asked by AFP, Uber said “satisfied to have reached this agreement”, and “looking forward to continuing to help everyone to move easily”.

The Californian company also affirmed that its policy of reimbursement of the waiting fees agreement.

“We work every day to improve accessibility for all users, and we encourage s passengers with disabilities to use our self-declaration document to be waived the waiting fee,” she says.