Outcome: $20,000,000 settlement
Lathrop, et al. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., Case No.: 3:14-cv-05678-JST in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Vergara v. Uber Technologies, Inc., Case No.: 1:15-cv-06942 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Tycko & Zavareei LLP achieved a victory in class action lawsuits against Uber Technologies, Inc., asserting breaches of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for the rideshare company sending unwanted non-emergency text messages. TZ was appointed as class counsel. Three distinct classes were identified under the settlement:
- Settlement Class A: This class includes individuals in the U.S. who received non-emergency text messages via Twilio Inc.’s system for Uber’s Refer-a-Friend Program.
- Settlement Class B: This class comprises individuals in the U.S. who began the Uber driver application process but did not become “active” drivers and received unsolicited non-emergency text messages after requesting Uber to stop such communications.
- Settlement Class C: This class incorporates any U.S. persons or entities who were not under contract with Uber and/or did not provide their cellular phone number to Uber but received one or more non-emergency text messages.
Uber Technologies, Inc. settled for $20 million in the consolidated cases.
Impact of the Settlement
The settlement delineates significant injunctive relief and several changes Uber agrees to implement, notably:
- Uber will cease sending server-assisted driver-referral text messages from the Uber app on Uber-issued cellular phones for two years following the settlement’s effective date.
- Uber commits to maintaining a protocol for opt-out requests from individuals who commence but do not finish the driver sign-up process, implementing a mechanism for unsubscribing such recipients from SMS messaging.
By December 31, 2017, or the settlement’s effective date, Uber is obliged to enforce specific measures for at least two years, including:
- The deletion of unverified phone numbers entered during rider account sign-up after 15 minutes.
- Enhanced user interface design to display the phone number entered during rider account sign-up for verification with a prompt questioning the correctness of the entered number.
A requirement for the user to re-enter their phone number following one failed verification text message resend.