Uber to Pay $7.5M in Driver Background Check Lawsuit

For Uber, the cost of doing business this week just went up a couple million.

The app-based car service has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle yet another lawsuit brought forth by drivers, Reuters reported Wednesday. The San Francisco federal court case centered on allegations that Uber terminated drivers after obtaining their background reports without authorization.

Lawyers representing the drivers filed a court memo Wednesday saying they are in the process of drafting a formal settlement, which must still be approved by a federal court judge.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As Reuters points out, the settlement is Uber's latest effort to move past some of the litigation risk it's facing.

Uber in April agreed to pay at least $84 million to settle two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts initiated by drivers. Both cases centered on whether drivers using Uber's app should be classified as independent contractors — as the company argued — or employees entitled to benefits and reimbursements for expenses like gas and tolls. As part of the settlement, both sides agreed that drivers will remain independent contractors, not employees.

Before that, the company in February agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle two class-action lawsuits that took issue with its "safe ride fee." Those suits said the mobile ride-hailing company misled passengers because its standards for hiring drivers are not as rigorous as the company implies.

That settlement amounted to less than a dollar for the approximately 25 million affected passengers, but also means Uber is forbidden from marketing itself in certain ways. Gone is the company's ability to say, for example, that it's the "safest ride on the road" or the "gold standard in safety."

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.