The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment to determine the potential need for federal regulations to address unfair or deceptive fees charged by online food and grocery delivery companies.
The request for comment follows a $100 million settlement with Walmart in February 2026 and a $60 million settlement with Instacart in December 2025.
In the Walmart case, FTC accused the company of underpaying drivers. The FTC separately accused Instacart deceiving consumers with automatic subscription enrollments and adding service fees on top of free deliveries.
Over the last five years, FTC has also received multimillion dollar settlements from Grubhub and Amazon for alleged deceptive practices tied to their delivery services.
Retailers largely disputed the allegations while backing clearer standards. Instacart said it supports transparent pricing and already discloses fees, denying wrongdoing. Grubhub called the claims inaccurate but settled to move on. Media reported Walmart said it repaid drivers and is improving pay transparency, while Amazon has said its disclosures were not unclear and noted earlier policy changes.
FTC submitted an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on April 10 and seeks written comments “including data, evidence, analyses and arguments, to help determine how best to prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices and to ensure that the agency addresses concerns from both consumers and the industry.”
Comments are due 30 days after the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) is published in the Federal Register.
Clear and honest pricing
Unfair or deceptive fees violate the Federal Trade Commission Act, the agency noted. The agency added that it has brought multiple actions against companies in recent years for violating the law.
“Online grocery fees that are unclear, inconsistently disclosed or revealed only at the last moment before consumers make a purchase distort competition and harm consumers,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Clear and truthful pricing is essential to competitive markets. The Commission’s enforcement track record suggests that consumers continue to face a suite of fees that prevent them from making informed comparisons. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to addressing unlawful grocery delivery pricing that obscures the true cost of groceries.”
FTC called out Instacart for advertising free delivery on customers’ first three orders and then adding service fees at the time of checkout. The mandatory fees – which were not clearly disclosed to consumers – added as much as 15% to the cost of the order, FTC said in December.
Instacart also allegedly promised a “100% satisfaction guarantee” that suggested a full refund for unhappy customers, but instead gave a small credit toward future orders. FTC also accused the company of hiding its refund option from its self-service menu used to file complaints, which led many consumers to “erroneously believe they could receive only a credit toward a future order rather than a refund.”
In response to the ANPRM, Instacart said it shares FTC’s goal of ensuring customer access to clear, accurate pricing.
“Instacart is a marketplace where customers choose from retailers who set their own prices, and we always provide customers with clear, upfront information about fees, and retailers’ pricing policies,” an Instacart spokesperson said. “We welcome the opportunity to engage constructively in this process and help ensure any new rules target bad actors while preserving the transparency, choice, convenience and affordability that customers value.”
The company also denied wrongdoing in the 2025 case, adding that they “stand firmly behind the integrity and transparency of our programs.”
“The December 2025 settlement allowed us to move forward and remain focused on delivering value for our customers, shoppers, and retail and brand partners in the communities we serve,” the company said.
Instacart also said that it:
- Waived delivery fees on advertised “free delivery” orders
- Clearly discloses, itemizes and explains service fees to customers throughout the ordering process.
- Includes service fees on a separate, clearly disclosed line item presented to customers before checkout
- Uses clear opt-in flows for subscriptions
- Discloses material terms – pricing, renewal, billing cadence and cancellation – before billing information is collected
- Makes it easy to cancel and access refunds
“These requirements align with practices we already had in place and reflect our longstanding commitment to transparent, consumer-friendly disclosures,” Instacart said. “We remain focused on providing customers with clear, upfront information about fees and total costs before checkout — on every order."
Deceiving drivers and consumers
The commission also noted a $25 million settlement with GrubHub in 2024 over allegations that the delivery company “engaged in an array of unlawful practices” including deceiving consumers about delivery costs and workers about pay, and listing restaurants on its platform without permission.
“Our investigation found that Grubhub tricked its customers, deceived its drivers and unfairly damaged the reputation and revenues of restaurants that did not partner with Grubhub – all in order to drive scale and accelerate growth,” former FTC Chair Lina Khan said in 2024. “Today’s action holds Grubhub to account, putting an end to these illegal practices and securing nearly $25 million for the people cheated by Grubhub’s tactics. There is no ‘gig platform’ exemption to the laws on the books.”
FTC said Grubhub tacked on “junk fees” that in some cases more than doubled the original price advertised.
The company allegedly also made inflated earnings promises to drivers in ads aimed at recruitment. In New York, Grubhub claimed drivers could make up to $40 an hour, although the median pay was $10 an hour.
Grubhub denied the accusations in 2024, stating: “At Grubhub, we’re committed to transparency so that every single day diners, restaurants and drivers can make well-informed choices to do business with us. While we categorically deny the allegations made by the FTC, many of which are wrong, misleading or no longer applicable to our business, we believe settling this matter is in the best interest of Grubhub and allows us to move forward.”
Actions against Amazon and Walmart
FTC has also targeted grocery delivery in two separate actions against Walmart and Amazon.
In February 2026, FTC settled with retail giant Walmart for $100 million, due to allegations from FTC and 11 states that the company deceived drivers on base pay, incentive pay and tips, causing workers to lose tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
Similar to Grubhub, FTC accused Walmart of inflating base pay and tip amounts in material used to recruit drivers for its Spark Driver program.
Walmart also allegedly deceived drivers by failing to inform them that it reduced base pay and tips if the driver removed batched orders, where delivery of goods involves multiple customers. Additionally, FTC accused Walmart of promising incentives for referring new drivers but failing to disclose that the incentive only applies to drivers working in particular zones or for particular locations.
Walmart also allegedly failed in its promise that 100% of tips go to the drivers, according to FTC. “Despite this promise, Walmart, on multiple occasions, failed to provide collected tips to drivers as promised and did not refund the tips to customers either,” the agency said.
Walmart did not respond to a request for comment, but Reuters reported in February that the company said it had paid impacted drivers.
“We value the hard work and dedication of the drivers who deliver great service and products to our customers.... We are continuously improving procedures to ensure fairness and transparency for drivers,” a Walmart spokesperson said, according to Reuters.
Amazon also has faced FTC scrutiny for problems with its delivery service, paying a $61.7 million settlement in June 2021 over accusations that it failed to pay Amazon Flex drivers the full tip amount received from customers over two and a half years.
Amazon promised customers and drivers that 100% of the tips would go to the driver, but it was later discovered that “Amazon withheld nearly a third of customers’ tips to subsidize its own payments to the drivers,” according to FTC’s recent request for public comment.
“Rather than passing along 100% of customers’ tips to drivers, as it had promised to do, Amazon used the money itself,” said Daniel Kaufman, then-Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Our action today returns to drivers the tens of millions of dollars in tips that Amazon misappropriated, and requires Amazon to get drivers’ permission before changing its treatment of tips in the future.”
Amazon did not respond to requests for comment, but in 2021 told CBS News that it disagreed “that the historical way we reported pay to drivers was unclear.” Amazon explained in the article that it updated the pay policy for additional clarity in 2019.
