The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Uber, accusing the company of “deceptive billing and cancellation practices.”

Uber is the largest ride-sharing service, with operations in multiple countries around the world. In the US, however, the company is facing a legal challenge from the FTC over its practices, practices that US regulators have increasingly been cracking down on among subscription-based services.

According to the FTC, Uber “charged consumers for its Uber One subscription service without their consent, failed to deliver promised savings, and made it difficult for users to cancel the service despite its ‘cancel anytime’ promises.”

• The agency says that Uber promised customers $25 of savings per month, but failed to take into account the subscription cost itself, which is up to $9.99 a month. To make matters worse, not only were customers signed up without their consent, but some users reported being charged for the service despite not even having an Uber account
• Uber is also accused of charging customers prematurely, before their billing due dates. This includes charging customers during their free trial period, before the trial period had ended.
• Like many subscription-based services, Uber is accused of making it exceedingly difficult to cancel an Uber One subscription, forcing users “to navigate as many as 23 screens and take as many as 32 actions to cancel.” Even when a user proceeds, the company tries to force them to settle for a membership pause instead, explain the reason for their cancellation, or to contact customer support to complete the cancellation.

“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “The Trump-Vance FTC is fighting back on behalf of the American people. Today, we’re alleging that Uber not only deceived consumers about their subscriptions, but also made it unreasonably difficult for customers to cancel.”

The FTC has been increasingly cracking down on companies that abuse their subscription services to keep people locked in. For example, the agency sued Adobe in mid-2024 for similar behavior as Uber, saying “Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles.”

It’s good to see the FTC standing up to companies and trying to bring back common sense and straight-forward billing practices to subscription-based services. Users should have the ability to terminate an unneeded or unwanted service as easily as it is to sign up.

Unfortunately, given how popular it is to go the route of Uber and Adobe, it’s a safe be the FTC will sue far more companies in the future.