Uber admits it misled users about ride cancellation fees
Uber has admitted misleading millions of Australian users with ‘free cancellation‘ warnings and is set to receive a huge fine. The admission comes after the company was sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Uber now faces $26 million (Australian dollars) in penalties for adopting those illegal practices.
The ride-hailing major has admitted that it made false or misleading statements in cancellation warning messages and taxi fare estimates, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Tuesday.
More than two million Australian consumers were shown the misleading cancellation warning.
Even when consumers were seeking to cancel a ride with Uber’s free cancellation period, the Uber rideshare app displayed a cancellation warning to consumers who sought to cancel a ride saying words to the effect of ‘You may be charged a small fee since your driver is already on their way‘. This continued for almost four years between December 2017 and September 2021,
“Uber admits it misled Australian users for a number of years and may have caused some of them to decide not to cancel their ride after receiving the cancellation warning, even though they were entitled to cancel free of charge under Uber’s own policy,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement.
The misleading information on Uber’s app “deprived consumers of a chance to make an informed decision about whether or not to choose the Uber Taxi option”, she added.
According to the commission, the algorithm used to calculate the estimated fare range inflated these estimates so that the actual taxi fare was almost always lower than that range, and consequently cheaper than Uber’s lowest estimate.
In India, thousands of customers continue to suffer from paying cancellation fees sans their fault. Local residents are facing similar troubles as of late, the drivers have been forcing people to cancel their rides when drivers do not want to ferry them or find the travel fare less.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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In India same thing is happening with Uber & Ola. For they pay commission to ruling govts, so total inaction in India.