For all the complaints about what delivery and rideshare apps pay their drivers and charge their restaurants, one fact gets lost: regulators have already forced the companies to hand back more than a billion dollars. The striking part is who did it — overwhelmingly state and city officials, not Washington.
| Year | Regulator | Target | Amount | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | NY Attorney General | Uber & Lyft | $328 million | Withheld driver pay (NY) |
| 2024 | Massachusetts AG | Uber & Lyft | $175 million | Pay + a $32.50/hr engaged-time floor |
| 2025 | NYC DCWP | Food-delivery apps | $550 million | Withheld delivery-worker tips (settlement fund) |
| 2026 | FTC (+ Illinois AG) | Grubhub | $23.8 million | Deceptive earnings claims; account blocking |
| 2026 | NYC DCWP | HungryPanda | $875,000 | Illegal fees charged to restaurants |
State and city regulators did the heavy lifting
The two largest actions came from a state attorney general and a city agency. In 2023 New York’s AG secured a $328 million settlement with Uber and Lyft over withheld driver pay; in 2024 Massachusetts reached a $175 million deal that also set a $32.50-an-hour floor for engaged time. New York City’s DCWP has separately pursued hundreds of millions tied to withheld delivery-worker tips, and — as of this year — has begun fining apps for overcharging restaurants.
Washington’s share is smaller
By contrast, the marquee federal action on this beat, the FTC’s Grubhub case, is returning $23.8 million to drivers and diners — real money, but a fraction of the state-and-city total. The pattern is consistent with what our own reporting has found across the rideshare and delivery beat: the enforcement muscle lives in state capitals and city agencies, where disclosure laws and pay floors actually exist.
Batmandir · Guest Passes Step inside for a day. Guest passes from $161/day — brought in by a member. See guest passes →Sources: New York Attorney General (2023 Uber/Lyft settlement); Massachusetts Attorney General (2024 settlement); NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (delivery-worker tips; HungryPanda restaurant-fee settlement, 2026); Federal Trade Commission (Grubhub redress, Aug 2026). Figures are as announced by each regulator; some settlement funds are distributed over time.
