Three restaurant delivery app companies will pay more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties after the companies violated a city law that protects delivery workers.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Sam Levine on Friday said Uber Eats, Fantuan and HungryPanda will pay a combined $5,195,000 in restitution, civil penalties and damages to more than 49,000 food delivery workers to resolve violations of the city’s Minimum Pay Rate for delivery workers.
Uber has also agreed to reinstate workers who were wrongfully deactivated between December 2023 and September 2024, which may impact as many as 10,000 people, officials said.
"This settlement won’t just deliver real relief to thousands of New Yorkers—it draws a red line for corporate abuse," Mamdani said in a statement. "If you break the law and profit from exploitation, you will be held accountable, swiftly and directly.”
Uber Eats will pay $3,150,000 in restitution to more than 48,000 workers citywide and $350,000 in civil penalties and fees. DCWP’s investigation found that Uber Eats failed to pay workers the minimum pay rate between December 2023 and September 2024 for time spent on canceled trips.
Fantuan will pay more than $468,000 in restitution to 285 workers citywide and more than $52,000 in civil penalties and fees. DCWP’s investigation found that Fantuan failed to pay workers the minimum pay rate between December 2023 and February 2024.
HungryPanda will pay $1,068,672 in restitution to more than 1,000 workers citywide and more than $106,327 in civil penalties and fees. DCWP’s investigation found that HungryPanda failed to pay workers the minimum pay rate between December 2023 and January 2024.
“The era of giant corporations juicing profits by underpaying workers is over,” said Levine.
The settlement is a turning point for delivery workers and for justice in this industry, according to Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Worker’s Justice Project and co-founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, an advocacy group.
“For years, app companies treated the law as optional – hiding behind algorithms, stealing wages, and deactivating workers without consequence," she said. "The scale of these abuses proves what deliveristas have been saying for years: exploitation is not an accident – it’s baked into the app delivery business model. But today’s victory also clearly shows that those days are over."
