US States sue Uber over subscription practices

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Nearly two dozen states and the District of Columbia have piled into an ongoing lawsuit against Uber, accusing the company of turning its Uber One subscription into a masterclass in unwanted charges and Olympic-level cancellation hurdles.

Filed Monday as an amended complaint in a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission, the lawsuit claims Uber charged people for Uber One without proper consent, billed them before free trials ended, and made some creative claims about how much money subscribers would supposedly save. 

The result, according to regulators: confused customers, unexpected charges, and a strong desire to throw their phones across the room.

But the real star of the complaint is the cancellation process. According to the states, ditching Uber One wasn’t just inconvenient. It was an endurance sport. 

Subscribers allegedly had to tap through as many as 23 screens and complete 32 separate actions just to cancel. That’s not a subscription flow. That’s an escape room with worse lighting.

The states joining the amended complaint include heavy hitters like California, New York, and Illinois, along with Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 

Together, they’re asking for civil penalties under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act and various state laws, essentially arguing that “Cancel” should not feel like a boss fight.

Uber, unsurprisingly, disagrees. When the original lawsuit dropped, the company denied the FTC’s claims and later told The Verge that cancellations can now be done anytime in-app and take “20 seconds or less” for most users. 

In other words, Uber says the maze has been replaced with a straight line, or at least a slightly curved one.

Still, regulators seem unconvinced, and the amended complaint suggests this ride isn’t over yet. 

For consumers, the case taps into a familiar frustration: subscriptions that are easy to start, hard to stop, and somehow always charged at the worst possible moment. 

As the lawsuit moves forward, Uber may have to explain why saving a few bucks on rides and food delivery allegedly came with a side of digital gymnastics, and why “unsubscribe” felt less like a button and more like a journey.