Judge allows Seattle driver deactivation law to go into effect

A new law regulating when app-based delivery companies may deactivate drivers went into effect in Seattle on Jan. 1 after a federal judge denied a motion from Uber and Instacart to block it.

The law restricts the companies’ ability to boot delivery drivers and couriers from their platforms without more extensive notice and justification, and requires them to provide more opportunities for drivers to understand and appeal the decision. Passed in 2023, but delayed in its implementation, the law’s purpose was one piece of a larger effort by a previous city council and labor-backed advocacy groups to regulate the so-called gig economy.

While the law was approved more than a year ago, Uber sued to stop it less than two weeks before its start date. The company argued it posed a safety risk for customers and violated the company’s First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. Instacart later joined the case.

District Court Judge Marsha Pechman denied the companies’ request for a temporary restraining order, concluding all of their arguments were likely to fail upon further examination.

Companies like Uber or Instacart sometimes temporarily or permanently bar drivers from their platforms if background checks reveal the drivers have past traffic infractions, their rating dips too low, they refuse too many rides or they fail to upload certain documents.

Some workers complained, however, they had been denied access for arbitrary reasons they did not fully understand, prompting labor groups to push the council to action.

The new law requires companies to write a “reasonable” policy for when and why drivers will be deactivated. Under that policy, the companies should not deactivate drivers for failing to drive enough hours, falling below a minimum customer rating or turning down ride offers and deactivation should not be based on the results of a background check or driver record, except in egregious circumstances, the law states.

The law also requires the companies conduct a “fair and objective” investigation and provide 14 days’ notice before deactivating a driver, except in certain circumstances. Drivers should also be provided with records justifying their deactivation and be given the chance to contest the decision.

Finally, the companies are required to turn over internal data on how frequently and why they kick off drivers from their platforms.

In the case first filed by Uber last month, the company argued Seattle should not be allowed to compel it to write a policy it did not agree with. The law, the company argued, “offloads the City’s vision of what amounts to an ‘unwarranted deactivation’ — and the harmful effects that vision is likely to bring about — onto companies like Uber by forcing them to announce policies that espouse the City’s views as if they were the companies’ own.”

By restricting their ability to deactivate drivers, the city was also forcing the companies to associate with drivers it may believe are unsafe or unqualified to use their platform, the lawsuit said.

Above all, an Uber spokesperson said, the law posed a safety risk for customers.

Pechman disagreed. The city is not regulating speech, she said, but instead imposing standard regulation on operations by the companies. They are free to voice their displeasure and disagreement with the law, even as they are forced to follow its parameters.

“The Court finds that the Ordinance’s requirements do little more than regulate conduct without any significant impact on speech or expression,” she wrote.

In a statement, the Uber spokesperson called the ruling “disappointing.”

“We are carefully evaluating our legal options and next steps — and remain committed to working with stakeholders toward a resolution that best serves couriers, consumers and merchants,” the spokesperson said.

Since the law’s passage the Seattle City Council has taken a turn away from first-in-the-nation labor laws. Now-Council President Sara Nelson was one of two no votes on the law at the time. She’s since been joined by six new colleagues.

Whether the council will do anything to change the deactivation law, however, is a different story. Nelson sought to rewrite a different law guaranteeing delivery drivers a minimum wage, but the effort stalled indefinitely.