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Uber will also furnish an additional $500,000 to others harmed by the practice and will also waive wait time fees for certified riders with disabilities going forward, the Justice Department said Monday.
The agreement settles federal allegations that the ride-hailing giant violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, authorities said.
The double-money-back part of the deal could cost Uber anywhere from hundreds of thousands to possibly millions more, analysts say.
The Justice Department sued Uber Technologies Inc. in November, alleging that the fees discriminated against passengers who needed more time to get into vehicles because of disabilities.
"People with disabilities should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability, which is exactly what Uber’s wait time fee policy did," Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
Uber instituted wait time fees in certain cities in April 2016 before expanding the practice nationwide, federal authorities said.
The fees began two minutes after the Uber car arrived at the pickup location more than five minutes after an Uber Black or SUV was called, Justice Department officials said. These continued until the actual trip began, they said.
The practice discriminated against those who need more than two minutes to get in an Uber car, according to the Justice Department complaint.
Those riders may need extra time for various reasons.
A wheelchair or walker might have to be broken down and stored in the vehicle, for instance.
A blind passenger could need extra time to safely get from the pickup spot to the vehicle.
Making the practice even more egregious, federal authorities said, were examples of wait times beginning at the two-minute mark even when the driver knew of the passenger's situation.
“We’re pleased to have reached this agreement with the Department of Justice, and look forward to continuing to help everyone move easily around their communities,” an Uber spokesman said in a statement. “It has long been our policy to refund wait time fees for riders with a disability when they alerted us that they were charged, and prior to this matter being filed we made changes so that any rider who shares that they have a disability would have wait time fees waived automatically.”
MORE INFO: justice.gov/crt
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