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Uber Eats · CHI Company Investigation · Delivery / Local Commerce

Uber EatsUber Technologies, Inc. · Publicly listed · Food and local-commerce delivery marketplace

Conclusion: Partially supports · Mechanism: fee restructuring and conditional pricing · No score assigned

One fee became a pricing system.

Uber Eats moved from a flat delivery charge to variable delivery, service fees, small-order fees, subscriptions, regulatory surcharges and paid delivery priority. The structural shift is clear. The evidence that customers are being extracted from more aggressively is not.

1 → 8+Named fee types: one standard charge in 2016; eight or more across markets and order types now
18 Mar 2019One booking fee became three charges
$9.99Uber One monthly price at launch in 2021 and in 2026
—No numerical score assigned
● Estimated read 13 min
01 · Fee architecture, 2016–2026

Five steps from one charge to a pricing system.

Dated from Uber’s own pages where they survive. Each step changed how the price is built. None of them, on the evidence, proves how much more or less the average customer paid.

  1. 2016 $4.99 in most cities One flat delivery / booking fee

    One charge per order, knowable before the basket was built. No percentage service fee and no order minimum.12

    CaveatSeveral markets launched in 2017 charged $5.99. From October 2016 a busy-time fee could apply in some cities.45

  2. 8 Aug 2018 Flat becomes variable Booking fee varies with distance

    The flat fee was replaced across the US by a booking fee that varied mainly with distance to the restaurant: usually $2 to $8 depending on the city, CNET reported.3

    Uber’s claim52% of orders in its test cities had a lower booking fee than under the flat fee.2

  3. 18 Mar 2019 One price becomes three mechanisms The primary inflection point

    A delivery fee that varied by restaurant, a service fee of 15% of the subtotal, and a small-order fee on orders under $10.6

    Not statedUber’s notice confirms the under-$10 threshold, not the small-order fee amount.

  4. 2020 onward New pricing dimensions Speed, place and membership

    Paid Priority delivery (June 2020); city- and state-specific regulatory fees (from 2020); membership delivery pricing through Uber One (November 2021); fees that depend on distance and order type.1914

  5. 2026 Eight or more named fee types Across markets and order types

    Delivery, service or marketplace, small-order, long-range, priority, delivery-adjustment, bag and other mandated fees, and local regulatory fees.1213

    ImportantNo single order carries them all.

One standard charge became eight or more named fee types.

Uber’s fee architecture expanded from one standard delivery charge in 2016 to eight or more named fee types across markets and order types. No single order carries them all. A typical order shows a delivery fee and a service fee; others are added by order size, distance, city, merchant type or delivery speed.

Before the app. Uber’s first food test, UberFRESH, began in Santa Monica on 26 August 2014: a $12 fixed-menu lunch with no delivery charge and no tip required.51 It was a short lunch-only trial, so this page uses the 2016 full-menu app as the fairer baseline.

Structural changePrice increase

What changed is how the price is built. Whether it costs more is a separate question.

The stacks show the charge types that can sit between a menu and a payment, then and now. They do not show a single order: most customers pay only some of these on any given order.

Then · 2016Standalone app1
  • Restaurant / menu priceRestaurant
  • Delivery fee, $4.99 in most citiesFlat
  • TaxGovernment
  • TipOptional

One platform charge

Now · 2026Possible transaction layers1112
  • Menu price (set by the merchant; may differ from in-store)50Merchant
  • Delivery feePer restaurant
  • Service fee, or marketplace fee on some orders% of basket
  • Small-order feeBelow a threshold
  • Long-range feeDistance
  • Local or regulatory feeBy jurisdiction
  • Bag and other fees required by law or set by the merchantWhere applied
  • Priority deliveryOptional
  • TaxGovernment
  • TipOptional
  • Uber One membership, where heldOptional

Eight or more named fee types across markets and order types

Then · 2016

  • One mostly knowable delivery charge
  • Fee could be understood before building the basket
  • No percentage service fee
  • No order minimum
  • No paid delivery priority
  • No subscription needed for delivery-fee relief

Now · 2026

  • Delivery fee varies by restaurant
  • Percentage-based service fee that scales with the basket
  • Small-order economics
  • Subscription conditions: participating stores, distance, storefront minimums
  • Paid delivery priority
  • Jurisdiction-specific fees
  • More of the final price is set after the basket exists

One platform charge became a conditional pricing architecture.

This is a change in structure, not a measured price increase. What an Uber Eats order costs now depends on the restaurant, distance, basket size, city, membership and chosen delivery speed.
02 · The inflection point

18 March 2019: one booking fee became three charges.

On 18 March 2019 Uber replaced the US booking fee with three charges: a delivery fee that varied by restaurant, a service fee of 15% of the subtotal, and a small-order fee on orders under $10. This is confirmed from Uber’s own help page, archived in July 2019, and was reported at the time.689

Before · to 17 March 2019

Platform chargeOne booking fee
Service feeNone
Order minimumNone

After · from 18 March 2019

Delivery feeVaries by restaurant
+ Service fee15% of the subtotal
+ Small-order feeWhen the order is under $10
“Service fees equal 15% of an order’s subtotal.” … “Small order fees apply to orders less than $10.”Uber help page, “We’re changing how fees work on Uber Eats” · archived 16 July 2019
What this does not show

The change did not prove that the average order became more expensive. No reliable before-and-after average of what customers paid exists in any source found. Seven months earlier, Uber had told customers it was keeping “no hidden fees and no minimum orders”; the small-order fee was the first charge tied to basket size.2 That is a change of structure. It is not, by itself, evidence of higher total extraction.

03 · Service-fee migration

The charge moved into the basket.

Uber lowered or restructured the visible delivery fee at the same time it introduced a basket-dependent service fee: its notice said delivery fees would now vary by restaurant, and contemporaneous coverage reported lower base delivery fees.89 The important change is not the label. It is the arithmetic.

What the restructuring changed

Three things moved. None of them is a measured increase in what the average customer paid.
How
Part of Uber’s charge became a percentage of the subtotal instead of a fixed or distance-based amount.
When
The full charge is known only once the basket exists, not when the customer opens the menu.
Scale
The service fee rises with order size; very small orders gained a separate small-order fee.

Small-order fee: what is documented

Uber Eats had no small-order charge through 2018. On 18 March 2019 it added a small-order fee on US orders under $10; Uber’s notice did not state the amount.67

As examples only: a $2 fee was reported in a Philadelphia test that January, and a $3 fee in a New York Times test in February 2020.810 Neither is a national rate. Uber publishes no current US amount or threshold, saying only that the fee varies by city.11

The cost side

Uber’s 2019 IPO filing said courier payments for Uber Eats deliveries had historically exceeded the delivery fees customers paid.45 The old flat fee was itself below cost.

Read that way, the small-order fee ended a subsidy to small baskets. It is also the clearest example of a charge with no pre-2019 equivalent.

The change redistributed Uber’s charge across multiple components. It did not prove that the average customer paid more.
04 · Today’s US fees

Uber does not publish today’s US restaurant rates.

There is no national fee schedule for US restaurant orders on Uber’s help centre, Uber One pages, terms or blog. Uber’s help centre says the service fee is a percentage of the subtotal before promotions, that a minimum or maximum may apply, and that small-order fees vary and can be set by the restaurant.11 The 2019 rate of 15% should not be read as today’s national rate.

One example · not a national rate

Dallas, 9 October 2026

One restaurant, one city, one date, one signed-out new-customer session. No order was placed.12 The checkout described the service fee this way:

“This fee is equal to 17% of the subtotal. There’s a $3 minimum, but it’s never more than $14.99.”
Delivery fee
$3.99
Priority delivery
+$2.99
Separate small-order line on a $5.99 basket
None shown

The service fees actually charged ($3.09 and $4.22 on two baskets) did not reconcile exactly with that description ($3.00 and $4.07). The page gave no explanation.

What the customer can know, and when

The delivery fee is shown per restaurant. The service fee, any small-order fee and any local fee depend on the basket, the city and the order, so the full price is knowable at the cart, not before it.

That is a real change from 2016, when one fee could be known in advance. It is not evidence that the fees are hidden: the checkout observed for this page listed each fee on its own line.

05 · Uber One

The membership became central. Its price did not ratchet.

Uber One became increasingly important to the customer relationship, but the subscription itself has not followed a classic price-ratcheting pattern. Its US list price was $9.99 a month at launch in November 2021 and is $9.99 a month in October 2026; this research found no record of a monthly price increase in between.1415

$9.99 → $9.99Monthly price, Nov 2021 → Oct 2026
$99.99 → $96Annual plan, launch → now: lower in nominal terms
>70%Share of Delivery gross bookings from members, Q2 2026 (global)18

Uber reported 46 million members at the end of 2025.17 A nominal price held flat for five years while consumer prices rose means the membership price has fallen in real terms. Uber’s membership terms promise 30 days’ email notice of any price increase.16

What the membership covers

Uber advertises a $0 Delivery Fee and up to 10% off eligible orders. In its own words:

“Receive $0 Delivery Fee on standard delivery within at least 3 miles, and discounted Service Fee, from participating stores when you meet the order minimums shown on the storefront. Additional and optional fees may be charged for Priority Delivery and Long Range Delivery.”15

At launch the restaurant minimum was $15. Uber’s pages no longer state a figure. The service fee is discounted, not waived; other fees and taxes still apply.

Where the conditions sit

  1. Participating stores only.
  2. Standard delivery only; Priority and Long Range can cost extra.
  3. A distance condition, worded “within at least 3 miles”.
  4. A minimum set per storefront, not one published figure.
  5. A discounted, not waived, service fee.

These are conditions on the benefit, not price rises. They make the member’s saving on any one order harder to predict.

The Uber One litigation, stated precisely

Ruling · one claim“$0 delivery fees” claim dismissedOn 10 April 2026 Judge Jon S. Tigar (N.D. Cal.) dismissed, with prejudice, the FTC and states’ claim that Uber’s promise of “$0 delivery fees” on eligible orders was misleading, holding that “no reasonable consumer would assume that all orders do so.”38
Scope of that rulingPleading stage, one representationThe ruling was made at the pleading stage and is limited to that representation. It is not a finding that Uber’s advertising is lawful, and the case was not dismissed.
Allegation · pendingSign-up, billing, savings, cancellationThe FTC, 21 states and DC allege, among other things, a cancellation path of at least 7 screens and 12 actions, and as many as 23 screens and 32 actions near a billing date. These claims remain pending and unproven.3637
Uber’s response“Clear, simple”An Uber spokesperson said Uber One’s “sign-up and cancellation processes are clear, simple, and follow the letter and spirit of the law”.39
06 · Priority delivery

Uber put a price on the delivery sequence.

Uber introduced Priority delivery on 15 June 2020 for “a nominal fee”; trade press reported $0.99 at launch.1920 Uber was already grouping (“batching”) orders before then. Priority sells first drop-off within a multi-order delivery system. Uber does not guarantee an exact delivery time.

“…your order should come directly to you, with no other Uber Eats orders delivered before yours, ASAP.”Uber Newsroom · 15 June 2020

What the evidence supports

Paid segmentation of an existing service
  • Batching came firstUber described order batching as a new feature in Australia in January 2017; no US start date was found.21
  • Batched orders arrive laterAbout 13½ minutes later in a 2024 mystery-shopper study and 8 minutes later in 2025, averaged across apps.2324
  • Uber Eats batched more often in those samples19% of sampled orders in 2024 and 24% in 2025 (small samples of 200 and 150 orders per app).2224
  • Avoiding batching costs extraRestaurant Business: “For customers, there appears to be no way to avoid it without paying extra.”22
  • Priority is still sold todayLabelled “Direct to you” at checkout; +$2.99 in the Dallas example.12

What the evidence does not support

Claims this page does not make
Uber deliberately slowed Standard delivery Uber degraded the ordinary product and sold the old one back Couriers do not receive Priority fees

No before-and-after data on Standard delivery times exists in any source found. Uber’s grocery fee guide says the Priority fee “goes to couriers to help cover the cost of prioritizing your order”; the restaurant checkout does not say.13

Allegation — no court finding

A proposed class action filed on 27 July 2026, Wright v. Uber Technologies (N.D. Cal., No. 3:26-cv-07753), alleges that couriers are not told when a customer has paid for Priority. The complaint itself says Priority orders are generally delivered before other customers’ orders. No court has ruled, and no Uber response was found.25

CHI reading. The evidence supports monetization of delivery sequence, not deliberate degradation. A cheaper, slower option has been offered alongside Priority since its launch, so the queue position is priced in both directions.20 SP001 therefore remains partial.

07 · Regulatory recovery · SP004

When local rules changed Uber’s costs, Uber changed the customer’s bill.

Uber has repeatedly responded to regulation by explicitly altering the customer economic relationship, usually with a separately named charge. Lawful cost recovery is not hostile by default; CHI assesses transparency and proportionality. Uber’s fees were labelled and tied to the rule, but they were flat amounts, Uber published no reconciliation to actual cost, and no regulator or court has found any of them excessive.

Seattle · January 2024

Delivery-worker minimum pay

$5 “Local Operating Fee” on every order26

Uber described it as a fee that “helps offset the increased cost of regulations imposed on third-party delivery apps.” Seattle’s labor-standards director said: “The laws do not mandate any increase to customers’ prices.”26

For about six weeks Uber also charged it in suburbs outside Seattle, where the law does not apply, before limiting it to the city in late February 2024.27

CHI readingNamed and attributed; size unreconciled; briefly over-applied
California · December 2020

Proposition 22 benefits

$0.99–$2 “California Driver Benefits Fee” per order28

$0.99 in Los Angeles and up to $2 in San Francisco, linked by Uber to the driver benefits Proposition 22 requires.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi: “We’ve passed a fair amount on the consumers, but we’ve also absorbed some ourselves.”29

CHI readingNamed and attributed; partly absorbed, per Uber
New York City · December 2023

Not a fee: the tip prompt moved

$3.66 → $0.93 Average tip, Uber Eats and DoorDash combined, in one week32

After the city’s minimum pay rate for delivery workers took effect, Uber Eats moved its tip prompt to after delivery. The city called this “entirely Uber and DoorDash’s own business decision.”31

The figure covers both apps; it should not be attributed to Uber alone. A city law has required a checkout tip option since 26 January 2026.32

CHI readingA change to how the customer pays, not a named charge
Regulatory recovery is clear. Its size was never shown to match the cost, or to exceed it.

Portland. In July 2020, after Portland capped restaurant commissions at 10%, Uber Eats added a $3 charge to Portland orders, labelled “City of Portland Ordinance”.30 These fees are described in the past tense because whether any of them is still charged in 2026 was not confirmed.

08 · Transparency

On disclosure, the record cuts both ways.

More charges are not the same as hidden charges. The best independent test favours Uber Eats; the unresolved questions concern predictability and current litigation, not proven concealment.

Favourable · 2020

The only app of four that itemised every fee

In a September 2020 Consumer Reports test of four US delivery apps — Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and Postmates — Uber Eats itemised all fees and taxes at checkout; the other three did not. The test is six years old and does not describe the current app.33

Unresolved · 2026

Knowable at checkout, not before it

Uber publishes no national US restaurant service-fee formula, and basket-dependent fees can only be known once the basket exists. A proposed Ontario class action alleges the service fee is disclosed only late in the order. It has not been certified.34

Itemised when charged. Harder to predict before ordering.
Documented · 2020Consumer Reports“UberEats itemizes all fees and taxes.” The same report criticised Uber Eats for passing commission-cap costs to shoppers.33
Allegation · not certifiedCourtenay v. Uber, OntarioProposed class action issued 16 May 2025; certification motion set for March 2027. Uber said it will be “defending the lawsuit.”3435
Allegation · pendingFTC and states, Uber OneConcerns sign-up, billing, savings figures and cancellation, not order-level fee display. See section 05.
No findingFee displayNo court or regulator has found Uber Eats’ checkout fee display unlawful. That is an absence of findings, not exoneration.
09 · The counterweight

What the hostility thesis does not prove.

This side of the ledger is why the verdict is PARTIALLY SUPPORTS and not SUPPORTS. Each point is documented; together they block the stronger claim that Uber Eats now takes materially more from customers relative to what they get.

1 · Inflation

$4.99 then is about $7 now

A $4.99 fee in March 2016 is equivalent to about $7 in August 2026 dollars (BLS CPI-U).40 A modern order with a low delivery fee is not clearly dearer in real terms than the old flat-fee order. Nominal comparisons across a decade overstate the change.

2 · Uber One

No subscription price escalation

Monthly: $9.99 in 2021 → $9.99 in 2026. Annual: $99.99 → $96.1415 That is not a price ratchet.

3 · The 2019 effect

No proof of higher average fees

No reliable evidence establishes that the March 2019 restructuring raised average all-in fees. The change is structural; its price effect is unmeasured.

4 · Transparency

The independent test favours Uber

Consumer Reports found in 2020 that Uber Eats was the one app of four to itemise every fee and tax at checkout.33

5 · The old price

The flat fee was subsidised

Uber’s IPO filing said courier payments had exceeded the delivery fees customers paid.45 Ending a below-cost price is not the same as raising an established one.

6 · Advertising claim

One claim against Uber One fell

The FTC and states’ claim that “$0 delivery fees” was misleading was dismissed with prejudice at the pleading stage. The rest of that case is pending.38

7 · A steady take rate

Uber’s Delivery revenue has stayed between about 18.4% and 19.5% of the total value of orders each year since 2022.4142431744
Mixes
Restaurant commissions, customer fees, advertising and subscriptions. Uber does not report customer fees separately.
So
It is not a direct consumer-fee measure, and cannot show a customer-fee share.
Before
The ratio rose from 9.7% in 2019 to 19.5% in 2022, which Uber’s filings tie to lower incentive spending, larger baskets and accounting changes.

Not established either way

  • Higher total extractionThat Uber Eats takes materially more from a comparable customer, relative to value, than before.
  • Today’s national ratesThe current US restaurant service-fee rate, minimum, cap, delivery-fee range or small-order fee. Uber does not publish them.
  • Standard-delivery declineWhether Standard delivery got slower after Priority launched. No before-and-after data exists.
  • Regulatory fee sizeWhether any regulatory fee exceeded the cost of its rule. Uber published no reconciliation.
  • Current regulatory feesWhether the Seattle or California fees are still charged in 2026, and at what amounts.
  • Litigation outcomesThe pending FTC and Ontario cases, and the Priority suit, have no merits findings.
10 · Customer value

The product also became more useful.

CHI does not equate greater monetization complexity with hostility. The service that charges more ways also does more. Counts below are company-reported unless stated.

Selection

From a lunch menu to over a million merchants

The 2014 test offered a single fixed lunch. Uber reports 1.4 million merchants globally (Q1 2026) and Uber Eats in 35 countries.47

Breadth

Beyond restaurants

Grocery and convenience delivery in the same app, with its own published fee guide.13

Choice of speed

Faster or cheaper, by choice

Priority for first drop-off, a cheaper, slower option where offered, and pickup ordering through the app.20

Membership

One membership across Uber

Uber One covers delivery and rides at a monthly price unchanged since 2021, now used by members accounting for most Delivery bookings.18

Satisfaction

Highest of the three large apps

Uber Eats has scored highest of the three large US delivery apps in each ACSI survey since 2024, by one to three points; ACSI calls the 2026 lead narrow.46

The limit

Value does not cancel structure

None of this makes the price simpler. It is why the structural finding does not convert into a finding of greater extraction relative to value.

ACSI score (0–100)202420252026
Uber Eats747576
DoorDash737374
Grubhub717375
11 · Beside DoorDash

The same broad shift, under different labels.

Uber Eats and DoorDash show the same broad shift toward layered customer pricing, but neither is clearly more aggressive overall. CHI’s DoorDash investigation reached the same verdict, PARTIALLY SUPPORTS.

DimensionUber EatsDoorDash
Regulatory recoveryAdded customer fees in response to local rules, first in 2020, usually as a separately named line itemAlso added customer fees, including in 57 of 68 localities that capped commissions49
Paid faster deliveryPriority, since June 2020Express
Batching (two small samples)19% of sampled orders in 2024; 24% in 202512% in 2024; 9% in 20252224
Checkout itemisation (2020 test)Itemised every fee and taxDid not itemise fees33
Service-fee change, 2026No equivalent announcement foundBegan moving most US markets to a service fee that varies with distance and order size, July 202648
Membership priceUber One $9.99 a month since 2021DashPass $9.99 a month since 2018

This comparison is context, not a ranking. It does not support saying either company is more aggressive, that Uber’s service fee is more predictable, or that either handles regulatory recovery worse. Read the DoorDash investigation →

12 · Pattern classification

One supported pattern. Two partial. One not supported.

CHI’s institutional signal taxonomy, applied without forcing a fit.

SP004

Regulated Pass-through / Customer Recovery

Supported

The strongest pattern call. Uber repeatedly introduced customer-facing changes in response to regulation: named fees in Portland, California and Seattle, and a changed tip prompt in New York City. Supported is not a finding of hostility: the fees were labelled and attributed, and none has been found excessive.

SP001

Unmonetized Access / Entitlement Monetization

Partial

Priority monetizes delivery sequence and first-drop position. But no evidence establishes deliberate degradation of ordinary service before Priority was sold, and batching predates it.

SP002

Existing-Customer Yield Optimization

Partial

Uber added monetization surfaces and turned a single charge into several customer-facing mechanisms. But net customer extraction relative to value is not established.

SP003

Legacy Product Deprioritization / Portfolio Concentration

Not supported

No meaningful case. No former customer offering was found to have been withdrawn or degraded to push customers into a higher-value tier.

Final CHI assessment · Partially supports

Structural monetization is clear. Higher total extraction is not.

Uber Eats is a strong example of structural monetization without equally strong evidence of increased total extraction. The company converted a simple delivery charge into a layered pricing architecture, added subscription conditions, paid delivery segmentation and regulatory recovery mechanisms, and made the customer’s final economics more conditional.

But inflation, stable membership pricing, a comparatively steady take rate and the absence of a reliable before-and-after fee dataset prevent a stronger conclusion.

The product became more economically complicated. Whether that made the customer relationship materially worse: partly, but not enough to support the stronger claim. No numerical CHI, CVI or CFS score has been assigned.

More complexYes
More conditionalYes
Regulatory cost recoveryYes
Higher total extractionNot established
Customer value improvedYes
CHI conclusionPARTIALLY SUPPORTS

The fee didn’t simply grow.
It became a system.

Sources

Evidence behind this page.

Every figure on this page comes from the Uber Eats CHI research dossier and its publication fact-check (both 9 October 2026), and traces to a source below. Quotation marks are used only for wording confirmed on the original source. Labels: allegation means pleaded but not adjudicated; company-reported means an Uber figure not independently audited; calculated means arithmetic from sourced inputs.

  1. Uber Eats Seattle FAQ, archived 16 May 2016. Internet Archive
  2. Uber Newsroom, 8 Aug 2018. Lower booking fees on Uber Eats Company-reported
  3. CNET, 8 Aug 2018. Uber Eats gets a little cheaper, and a little more expensive
  4. TechCrunch, 27 Oct 2016. UberEATS fires up surge pricing in some US cities
  5. Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Sep 2017. UberEats launches in Salt Lake City
  6. Uber Help, “We’re changing how fees work on Uber Eats”, archived 16 Jul 2019. Internet Archive
  7. Uber Help, “What is the small order fee?”, archived 22 Aug 2019. Internet Archive
  8. Doctor of Credit, 12 Mar 2019. UberEats fee changes on 18 March 2019
  9. Skift, 22 Mar 2019. Uber Eats changes its delivery fee structure
  10. The Takeout, 28 Feb 2020 (reporting a New York Times test of 26 Feb 2020). Third-party delivery apps markups
  11. Uber Help, “What fees may apply to my order?” Uber Help (read 9 Oct 2026)
  12. Uber Eats checkout and store-page fee panel, one Dallas restaurant, signed-out new-customer session, observed 9 Oct 2026; no order placed. ubereats.com
  13. Uber blog, 10 Sep 2026. Grocery delivery across the US: fees, pricing and membership Grocery only
  14. Uber press release, 17 Nov 2021. Uber introduces Uber One
  15. Uber One. ubereats.com/uber-one (read 9 Oct 2026)
  16. Uber membership terms, last modified 10 Apr 2026. Uber Legal
  17. Uber Form 10-K, FY2025. SEC EDGAR
  18. Uber Q2 2026 prepared remarks, 5 Aug 2026. PDF Company-reported
  19. Uber Newsroom, 15 Jun 2020. Introducing Priority Delivery
  20. Restaurant Dive, Jun 2020. Uber Eats adds priority delivery option
  21. Uber Newsroom Australia, 27 Jan 2017. Batched orders: how do they work?
  22. Restaurant Business, 20 Aug 2024. Batched delivery orders take longer
  23. Intouch Insight, 2024. Third-Party Delivery Study Report 2024 (PDF)
  24. Intouch Insight, 2025. Third-Party Delivery Report 2025 (PDF)
  25. Wright v. Uber Technologies, N.D. Cal. No. 3:26-cv-07753, complaint, 27 Jul 2026. PDF Allegations
  26. GeekWire, 12 Jan 2024. Why the cost of Uber Eats orders in Seattle rose
  27. KING 5, Feb 2024. Uber Eats charging Seattle fee outside the city
  28. CNN, 14 Dec 2020. Uber adds Prop 22 fees in California
  29. Restaurant Business, 12 Feb 2021. Despite added costs, Uber Eats says Prop 22 is the right model
  30. The Oregonian, via The Bulletin, 14 Jul 2020. Uber Eats adds $3 fee in Portland
  31. THE CITY, 6 Dec 2023. Food delivery app tips
  32. NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Jan 2026. Delivery Worker Tipping Report (PDF)
  33. Consumer Reports, 29 Sep 2020. Collecting #Receipts: Food Delivery Apps & Fee Transparency (PDF)
  34. Koskie Minsky. Courtenay v. Uber Technologies, CV-25-00743364-00CP Allegations
  35. CTV News, 13 Jun 2025. Uber Eats Canada accused of drip pricing in proposed class action
  36. Federal Trade Commission, 21 Apr 2025. FTC takes action against Uber Allegations
  37. FTC complaint, FTC v. Uber Technologies, 21 Apr 2025. PDF Allegations
  38. Order on motion to dismiss, FTC et al. v. Uber Technologies, N.D. Cal. No. 25-cv-03477-JST, ECF 178, 10 Apr 2026. PDF
  39. TechCrunch, 21 Apr 2025. Feds accuse Uber of charging customers for subscriptions without consent
  40. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U all items (Mar 2016 238.132; Aug 2026 334.980). BLS
  41. Uber Form 10-K, FY2022. SEC EDGAR
  42. Uber Form 10-K, FY2023. SEC EDGAR
  43. Uber Form 10-K, FY2024. SEC EDGAR
  44. Uber Form 10-Q, Q2 2026. SEC EDGAR
  45. Uber Form S-1, 11 Apr 2019. SEC EDGAR
  46. ACSI, Jun 2026. Restaurant Study 2026
  47. Uber Q1 2026 prepared remarks. PDF Company-reported
  48. DoorDash newsroom, 23 Jul 2026. Updating our fee structure
  49. NBC News, 2021. DoorDash pushes back against fee caps with new charges
  50. Uber Help, Uber Eats pricing. Uber Help (menu prices on Uber Eats may differ from the merchant’s)
  51. TechCrunch, 26 Aug 2014. UberFRESH

Limits carried onto this page. Uber publishes no national US fee schedule for restaurant orders, so no current national rate appears here; the Dallas checkout is one dated example. The March 2019 notice survives only in a July 2019 archive capture, and Uber never stated the original small-order amount. Whether the Seattle, California and Portland fees are still charged was not confirmed. The FTC trial date of February 2027 has not been re-confirmed since May 2026. Batching figures come from two small mystery-shopper samples.

Status. Research frozen 9 October 2026 and publication-checked the same day. No numerical CHI, CVI or CFS score has been assigned; scoring is reserved for a later calibration stage.

Reading this beside the rest of the index

Two delivery platforms, one structural shift.

DoorDash shows the same move from one fee to a conditional pricing architecture. Uber shows the parent company setting both sides of a ride price. Read the methodology for why no score is assigned yet.

Same verdict · Delivery / Local CommerceRead DoorDash → The parent company · TransportationRead Uber → How CHI scores, and why no score is assigned hereRead the methodology → Every company in the sectorBrowse Delivery / Local Commerce →