Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced that food delivery service companies in his state will no longer be able to waive delivery fees specifically for black-owned businesses, which he deemed discriminatory.
“Even with the best of intentions, corporations can do the wrong thing. Altering the price of goods or services based on race is illegal,” Brnovich said in a press release Wednesday, detailing a civil rights case settlement with Uber Eats, Postmates, and DoorDash.
“My office opened these investigations and pursued these settlements to protect civil rights and ensure businesses offer their services and products based on equal and neutral criteria,” Brnovich said.
The Arizona attorney general initially launched a civil lawsuit in the fall of 2020 after the brands began offering their users fee-less delivery only to black-owned businesses.
The attorney general claimed the discounts “unlawfully discriminated against non-Black owned restaurants and their patrons, in violation of the Arizona Civil Rights Act.”
NEW JOBLESS CLAIMS DROP TO 385,000, BEATING EXPECTATIONS
The legal challenge ended after the food delivery services agreed to reimplement the delivery fees.
“Pursuant to the settlement agreements, the Companies will not offer financial incentives, advertise, provide any delivery fee discounts, or price-related discounts to customers in Arizona based on a restaurant owner’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or ancestry,” the attorney general’s office said.
The office said the case was handled by AGO Civil Litigation Division Chief Counsel Joseph Sciarrotta, Civil Rights Section Chief Counsel Rebekah Browder, and Unit Chief Leslie Ross.
Uber Eats initially announced its delivery discount in June 2020, shortly after George Floyd’s death.
“I wish that the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others weren’t so violently cut short,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an email to employees, explaining the price change. “I wish that institutional racism, and the police violence it gives rise to, didn’t cause their deaths.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
He said these businesses were “hit hard by COVID-19” and that the discounts would exist for the “remainder of the year.”
“I respectfully ask anyone not willing to abide by these rules to delete Uber,” he added.
