New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is suing delivery app Motoclick for alleged violations of the city’s Delivery Worker Laws. The lawsuit seeks to shut down the company and signals enforcement of regulations governing delivery platforms. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has also warned other delivery companies to comply with the law.
According to a recent statement from the NYC Mayor's Office official website , DCWP claims that Motoclick and CEO Juan Pablo Salinas Salek owe millions in stolen wages and damages. Motoclick's alleged tactics included charging their workers a $10 fee for canceled orders and deducting the full amount of refunded orders from the workers' pay, leading to a financial freefall where the workers themselves end up owing money to the company. On top of that, Mayor Mamdani has promised to actively begin to enforce rules against other industry players, sending out compliance notices to major delivery apps to fully adhere to new protections taking effect this January.
The crackdown doesn't stop at lawsuits; the DCWP is launching a compliance blitz, targeting app-based services like Instacart, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber. Specifically, Commissioner Sam Levine is sending out notices to these companies regarding the suite of Delivery Worker Laws that include tipping protections and pay transparency. "Today’s lawsuit against Motoclick is not just an action against one company, it’s a warning to every app-based company from this Administration. You cannot treat workers like they are expendable and get away with it. We will seek full back pay and damages. We will seek full accountability," Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su told reporters. This announcement follows a DCWP report that highlighted alleged design tricks used by DoorDash and Uber, which reportedly lowered workers' earnings by as much as $550 million, as reported by the NYC Mayor's Office.
The lawsuit represents more than just a legal battle; it's seen as a beacon of hope for workers' rights. "This moment marks a new era of co-enforcement in the app delivery industry: rooted in worker leadership, public accountability, and real consequences for reckless app companies," shared Ligia Guallpa, Executive Director of Worker’s Justice Project and Co-Founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, in a statement obtained by the NYC Mayor's Office press release. Mayor Mamdani also weighed in, "Deliveristas make millions of New Yorkers’ day-to-day lives easier only for their own to be difficult. Today, however, marks the end of a chapter of thankless exploitation."F
