- District of Columbia AG Karl Racine sued grocery delivery service Maplebear, Inc. d/b/a Instacart (“Instacart”) for allegedly charging consumers deceptive service fees and for failing to collect District sales tax on its services in violation of the Consumer Protection Procedures Act and the Sales Tax Law, respectively.
- The complaint alleges that Instacart charged consumers millions of dollars through a default 10% service fee for its delivery services, which deceptively appeared to be a tip but which Instacart did not share with its workers and kept as revenue. In addition, Instacart allegedly failed to collect and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax owed to the District during the entire time it has been operating there.
- The complaint seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, disgorgement and restitution, recovery of owed taxes with interest, civil penalties, and costs.