Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the FTC have reached a $25 million settlement with Grubhub over what officials called “alleged deceptive business practices.”“This settlement is the culmination of a multi-year investigation into deceptive and illegal business practices perpetrated by Grubhub,” Raoul said in a statement.
According to the complain filed by Raoul and FTC, Grubhub engaged in practices that impacted a wide variety of groups. Customers were affected by what officials described as “surprise fees,” which contradicted advertisements the company published promising “single, low-cost” fees for its services. Drivers were impacted by the company misleading them on the amount of money that they could expect to make in their roles, according to the settlement.Finally, as many as 325,000 restaurants were added to the service either involuntarily or against their explicit wishes, according to the settlement. The practice allegedly diverted diners from ordering directly from restaurants, and also caused issues as drivers were forced to pay for meals using Grubhub credit cards that were sometimes declined.