Overview
- State officials announced the $272.5 million settlement with Lyft on Thursday, resolving claims that the company misclassified drivers and denied wages and expense reimbursements from 2016 through 2020.
- At least $237,075,000 of the fund is reserved for drivers and payments will be calculated by hours and miles driven between April 5, 2016, and December 15, 2020.
- A third-party settlement administrator will set up a website, call center, and claims process to notify and pay eligible drivers once the court approves the agreement and Lyft makes the settlement payment.
- The suit was brought by Attorney General Rob Bonta, the city attorneys of San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles, the California Labor Commissioner, and private plaintiff lawyers, who relied on the Dynamex/AB5 legal test before Proposition 22 changed how app-based drivers are classified going forward.
- Officials call the deal the largest misclassification and wage-and-hour recovery in California history, and the payout could influence future enforcement and litigation over gig-economy worker classification.