More than 640,000 Grubhub drivers and diners across the country are being paid this month in one of the Federal Trade Commission’s larger food-delivery enforcement actions on record. The agency is distributing more than $23.8 million total after finding that Grubhub misled drivers about their potential earnings and blocked diners from their own accounts and gift card balances. Nobody on the list has to fill out a form, click a link, or prove anything to receive the money — checks and PayPal transfers are already moving on their own. The FTC counts it among its larger gig-economy restitution efforts to reach households in 2026.
The Earnings Promises and Blocked Accounts Behind the Case
The payments trace back to a December 2024 complaint the FTC and the Illinois Attorney General filed jointly against Grubhub, alleging violations across three fronts: deceptive driver pay claims, blocked diner accounts, and unauthorized restaurant listings. Driver-facing advertisements in New York City promised pay of up to $40 an hour, the agency said, but the median driver actually earned about $10 an hour, and only about one driver in 1,000 ever reached the advertised rate. Grubhub also allegedly tacked on hidden “service” and “small order” fees that could more than double a meal’s advertised price, and blocked some diners from accessing their own accounts and redeeming gift card balances. Separately, the complaint alleged Grubhub added restaurants to its marketplace without the owners’ permission, in some cases attaching menus or pricing the restaurants had not approved, which the agency said misled the diners ordering from those listings.
Grubhub agreed to a settlement that the FTC and Illinois filed in federal court, detailed in the original December 2024 announcement. The resulting order required the company to advertise driver pay honestly, build a working process for diners to dispute blocked accounts, and get a restaurant’s consent before listing it on the platform. Those changes to Grubhub’s operations took effect separately from, and ahead of, the payments now reaching drivers and diners.
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How the $23.8 Million Is Reaching 640,038 People
The FTC says it is sending 640,038 individual payments, either by check or through PayPal, to the drivers and diners it identified as harmed by Grubhub’s conduct. Most recipients are getting a paper check in the mail; a smaller group is being paid directly through PayPal, depending on which contact and payment details the agency had on file for that person. According to the FTC’s August 12 announcement, consumers who receive a check should cash it within 90 days of the date printed on it, and PayPal recipients should accept their payment within 30 days of receiving it. The checks are dated around the agency’s August 12 release, so as of late August most of that 90-day cash-by window is still open, running into early November, though the exact deadline depends on the date printed on each individual check.
No claim form, application, or account information is required to get a payment. The FTC and its refund administrator, Analytics Consulting LLC, are contacting eligible consumers directly using records built from the case rather than waiting for people to apply. The agency’s Grubhub refunds page repeats a warning that accompanies every FTC distribution: the Commission never asks anyone to pay money or hand over account information to receive a payment, a pattern scammers often copy once a real refund program makes headlines. Anyone who gets an unexpected call, text, or email demanding payment or login details in connection with this case should treat it as fraudulent. Anyone with genuine questions about a specific payment can call the refund administrator at 1-888-446-4992 or check the FTC’s refund FAQ page.
What the Order Requires From Grubhub Going Forward
Beyond the one-time payments, the settlement’s lasting effect is on how Grubhub operates day to day. Under the order, the company must advertise driver pay accurately instead of citing best-case top-earner figures, maintain a real process for diners to dispute blocked accounts and recover gift card balances, and stop adding restaurants to its platform without their consent. Those obligations run alongside the court order itself, separate from the payments going out this month, and give regulators a standing basis to act again if the company reverts to the practices described in the original complaint. The order does not expire once the checks clear; it binds Grubhub’s advertising and account practices going forward.
The FTC frames the case as part of a broader pattern of restitution work: agency-wide actions returned more than $435 million to consumers in 2025 alone, according to the same August 12 release, spanning cases well beyond food delivery. For the roughly 640,000 people receiving a Grubhub payment, the more immediate detail is narrower — a specific, already-resolved case moving through the mail or PayPal on a fixed clock, with the underlying allegations, order, and payment terms tracked publicly under the FTC’s file for Grubhub Inc., FTC and Illinois v.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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