Bay Area’s DoorDash to pay $2.5 million after allegedly tip theft
Bay Area restaurant-delivery firm DoorDash has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging it stole drivers’ tips and deceived customers into thinking their tip money was going to drivers.
Washington, D.C. attorney general Karl Racine filed the civil suit last year, and in a news release accused the San Francisco company of “lowering labor costs by swiping tips left for workers.”
Racine claimed “DoorDash led consumers to believe that any tips would go directly to food delivery workers, while instead effectively treating this money as extra profit for the company.”
The suit in District of Columbia Superior Court alleged DoorDash would reduce drivers’ pay for each job by the amount of any tip. For example, if a customer left no tip on a job that was to pay $10 to the driver — called a “Dasher” by the company — DoorDash would pay the driver $10,