Grubhub’s $24 Million Fine Reaches Users

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that $23.8 million in compensation collected as part of a lawsuit against Grubhub, one of the leading food delivery services, has begun reaching consumers and couriers. According to ixbt.com, the funds are being distributed to more than 640,000 people affected by the company’s deceptive practices and misrepresentation of workers’ earnings. Techcrunch.com reports .

These financial payments followed a wide-ranging lawsuit filed against Grubhub by the FTC and the Illinois attorney general’s office in December 2024. Officials strongly criticized the company for distributing false and misleading information about couriers’ potential earnings, restricting customers’ access to their accounts and funds, and, most importantly, listing restaurants on the platform without authorization.

Unauthorized Restaurants and Deceptive Advertising Practices

Investigations found that Grubhub had unauthorized listings for nearly 325,000 establishments that did not partner with the company, in an effort to artificially inflate the size of its platform. The company refused to comply with the restaurants’ legal requests to remove their pages and instead tried to pressure them into signing paid partnership agreements.

Under the settlement terms, Grubhub was required to fundamentally change its operations. The company must now be more transparent when publishing couriers’ estimated earnings, give customers the option to restore or appeal restricted accounts, and obtain explicit consent from any restaurant before partnering with it.

Widespread Problems in the Delivery Market

The case has once again drawn public attention to the practices of major players in the online delivery market. It also emerged that, a month earlier, a federal court had approved another settlement worth nearly $25 million to protect the interests of approximately 60,000 Grubhub couriers in California.

Today, Grubhub is not the only company facing serious investigations and legal challenges; other major delivery platforms are under scrutiny as well. DoorDash, for example, has previously faced criticism over courier pay and working conditions, while Uber Eats has encountered numerous problems over extra fees charged to customers and disputes with restaurants.