This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
New Hampshire has joined 22 other states in signing onto a lawsuit against Uber, arguing the rideshare company was “deceptive” in selling and billing for its subscription service, Uber One, according to a press release from Attorney General John Formella’s office.
The lawsuit, initially brought by the Federal Trade Commission, accuses Uber of misrepresenting the amount of money customers could save by using the subscription service. The company also made it difficult for customers to cancel Uber One — especially toward the end of each billing cycle — and would automatically charge users if they did not cancel in time, according to the complaint.
“Consumers should not be misled into signing up for subscription services or trapped in recurring charges they do not knowingly agree to,” Formella said in the press release. “This lawsuit alleges that Uber’s practices obscured critical information about costs, savings and cancellation, and New Hampshire is joining our federal and state partners to ensure that companies are held accountable and consumers are treated fairly.”
The lawsuit quotes unnamed consumers who complained of being charged before the due date and being repeatedly rerouted from the app to the customer service phone number when trying to cancel.
“After going through a few pages in the process, I landed on a roadblock page that stated, ‘You are within 48 hours of your renewal window and must contact support to cancel,'” one customer said. “This never existed before, and is not only a deceptive business practice but may be illegal. Rather than making it easy, or even possible to cancel in the app they tried to make it much more difficult and time consuming, despite there being no need to do so from a technical or accounting perspective.”
The lawsuit seeks damages for each violation of state laws, in New Hampshire and in the other states that have signed on. Connecticut is the only other New England state to join the suit.
A trial is currently set for 2027, according to the press release.
