Uber on Thursday said that it will pay $28.5 million to settle two lawsuits which claim that they’ve mislead customers about their safety measures and fees.
ABC reported that the ride-hailing company spoke with a federal judge in San Francisco, asking for a settlement over the class-action lawsuits filed against them. The company is offering to pay 25 million riders who booked US trips from Jan. 1 until Jan. 31, 2016.
The judge’s decision is yet to be determined.
"We are glad to put these cases behind us and we will continue to invest in new technology and great customer services so that we can help improve safety in the cities we serve," Uber said in a statement.
Uber was attacked by lawsuits for their $2.30 fee per trip, advertising that they do background checks on their drivers. However, the company didn’t do any kind of fingerprint checks required on their slew of drivers.
Part of the settlement states that Uber would stop advertising their services with “safety-related” language and that they would change its “Safe Ride Fee” into “Booking Fee”.
CNBC reported that Uber claimed that their technology provides safety features, including a GPS tracker, a license plate number, and a sharing button to enable other people to know the identity of the driver before a passenger gets inside the car.
However, they said that all means of transportation aren’t always 100 percent safe – as accidents and incidents happen.
"That's why it's important to ensure that the language we use to describe safety at Uber is clear and precise," Uber said.
The cases, according to Telegraph UK, were filed after Los Angeles and San Francisco district attorneys made the same accusations in 2014.
Uber has asked the court to dismiss most of the civil lawsuits and will be heard on Thursday in a San Francisco state court.
