The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”)- formerly the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA)— was created to protect and enhance the daily economic lives of New Yorkers to create thriving communities. DCWP licenses more than 45,000 businesses in more than 40 industries and enforces key consumer protection, licensing, and workplace laws that apply to countless more.
In September 2021, the New York City Council (the “City Council”) signed into law a package of legislation directed at food delivery platforms. Among the relevant measures was Local Law 115, which required DCWP to study the pay and working conditions of food delivery workers and, based on the results of its study, to establish a method for determining the minimum payments that third-party food delivery services and third-party courier services (together, “apps”) must pay to food delivery workers. The rule is complicated, and the basis for the rule relies upon limited studies and data. Suffice it to say that the pay basis is somewhat similar to the rules that the High Volume For-Hire Services (“HVFHS”).
On June 12, 2023, DCWP issued a Final Rule setting a minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers. The rule was scheduled to go into effect on July 12, 2023. On June 7, 2023, Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber”) filed an order to show cause in the New York County Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) to enjoin the DCWP from enforcing the new pay rule. Of course, the City of New York opposed Uber’s application for a TRO. On July 7, 2023, New York County Supreme Court Justice Nicholas W. Moyne issued the TRO enjoining the CDWP from enforcing the new rule pending a hearing on Uber’s application for a preliminary injunction that is now set for oral arguments on July 31, 2023.