Rival tech giants DoorDash and Uber are suing New York City over laws requiring their apps to offer customers the chance to tip delivery workers at checkout — not after an order is placed — and set the default option to at least 10% of an order’s cost.
The companies argue the laws, which take effect on Jan. 26 after passing last summer, violate their constitutional rights to free speech by compelling them to “speak a government-mandated message in a prescribed manner and at a prescribed time.” They’re asking the Southern District of New York to block the laws and award monetary damages for what the federal lawsuit also says is a violation of their property rights “without just compensation.”
“Plaintiffs are conscripted to amplify the City’s message despite the fact that food deliveries in New York City recently became more expensive due to the City’s guaranteed minimum-earnings requirements for delivery workers,” the suit states.
DoorDash and Uber also cite “tipping fatigue” and “generally rising prices” in their filing, arguing their bottom lines will be hurt because customers will use the delivery platforms less if prompted to tip more than they would be otherwise.
“Practices like suggested tip amounts and suggested pre-service tipping can convey the hotly debated message that tipping should not just be a recognition of good service but an expectation regardless of service quality,” the suit says. DoorDash went further in a release Thursday, saying city lawmakers have “turned tipping into essentially an added tax” amid “an affordability crisis.”
The lawsuit is the latest salvo by Big Tech companies to stymie regulations on their business operations and how much they pay delivery workers, who have organized in recent years for better wages and working conditions. It comes in the final weeks of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and as Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who ran on a pro-labor platform, prepares to take office.
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday. A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, which defends the city against litigation, said the agency would review the lawsuit once it’s been served.
City Councilmember Shaun Abreu of Manhattan, who authored the laws, said on Thursday that app-based delivery companies began “hiding” tipping options to obscure full costs after the city set a minimum wage for food delivery workers a few years ago. The City Council expanded those protections to grocery delivery workers in July.
“Customers know that delivery workers brave rain, stairs and long distances using their own equipment, and if someone wants to tip them, they shouldn’t have a hard time doing it,” he said in a statement. “No one is ever forced to tip, and making it more difficult to do so is plain wrong.”
Tech companies’ alleged concealment of tipping on their platforms, Abreu claimed, has resulted in millions of dollars in lost gratuities for delivery workers.
This story has been updated with additional information.
