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DoorDash Slams Seattle Over Deactivation Law and Adds Service Fees: What Customers and Drivers Should Know

DoorDash blamed Seattle’s app-worker regulations for higher service fees. The law gives covered workers notice and appeal rights, but does not ban deactivation or guarantee reinstatement.
From TheFinanceBase Team7 min to read
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DoorDash announced higher service fees for Seattle orders on July 8, 2025, blaming the city’s app-based-worker regulations. The company did not disclose the exact increase in its announcement. Seattle’s deactivation law requires covered platforms to provide more notice, records, and appeal rights to certain delivery and other app-based workers—but it does not ban deactivation or guarantee reinstatement.

The fee change should also be separated from Seattle’s minimum-payment rules and its separate 10-cent regulatory fee per covered order. The public information available does not establish that the deactivation ordinance alone caused DoorDash’s price increase, nor independently verify all of the company’s claims about earnings, delays, fraud, and restaurant revenue.

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What DoorDash announced

DoorDash said Seattle service fees would increase beginning in July 2025. The company attributed the change to what it called “extreme regulations,” including the city’s App-Based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance.

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DoorDash said Seattle was its most expensive U.S. market in which to facilitate delivery and that it operated at a loss there in 2024. It said the fee increase was necessary to continue operating in the city.

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However, the announcement covered by GeekWire did not specify:

  • the dollar amount or formula for the new fee;
  • whether DashPass members were exempt or received a discount;
  • whether small orders or particular delivery types were treated differently; or
  • whether the fee was temporary or permanent.

Do not assume that the city’s 10-cent regulatory fee is the same as DoorDash’s customer-facing service fee. Seattle permits covered network companies to remit 10 cents per covered order or service to help recover licensing and implementation costs. A platform may absorb that amount, pass it through, or include it in broader pricing.

DoorDash’s claims about Seattle’s delivery market

DoorDash attributed several effects to Seattle’s labor policies, including:

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  • more than 35% longer delivery delays;
  • more than 20% lower Dasher earnings;
  • about half as many daily delivery offers;
  • higher fraud; and
  • a 2% decline in average monthly revenue per store.

These figures should be treated as DoorDash claims or internal analysis, not established citywide findings. The available announcement does not explain the methodology, comparison period, stores or workers included, or how it accounted for seasonality, restaurant closures, order mix, menu prices, consumer demand, and other changes.

For restaurant revenue in particular, “revenue per store” could mean gross order value, merchant payout, or another measure. Without that definition and supporting data, it is not possible to determine how broadly the claim applies.

What Seattle’s deactivation law actually requires

Seattle’s ordinance took effect on January 1, 2025, and its administrative rules took effect on June 24, 2025. It covers certain workers using covered app-based platforms to deliver food, shop for groceries, or perform other on-demand services.

The law is not limited to passenger rideshare drivers, and it should not be confused with Seattle’s separate legal framework for transportation-network-company drivers. Coverage depends on the platform, the worker’s location and work history, and the facts surrounding the deactivation.

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Ordinary deactivations

In typical cases, the rules generally require a covered platform to:

  • maintain a deactivation policy describing conduct or circumstances that may lead to removal;
  • use policies reasonably related to safe and efficient operations;
  • conduct a fair and objective investigation;
  • give generally 14 days’ advance notice;
  • provide notice on the effective date;
  • give the worker access to relevant supporting records;
  • offer an internal process to challenge the decision; and
  • notify the worker of applicable rights.

The Seattle administrative rules also address how evidence may be presented and how platform policies must operate.

When immediate deactivation may occur

The ordinance does not require a platform to leave every worker active for 14 additional days. Different procedures may apply when the company alleges egregious misconduct, must act under a court order or other applicable law, or faces circumstances involving threats, violence, fraud, theft, or danger to people or animals.

For alleged egregious misconduct, notice may be provided no later than the effective date rather than 14 days beforehand. The company still has documentation and evidence obligations under the rules, including the use of anonymized or summarized records where appropriate.

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Customer ratings may be considered. But if ratings are identified as a factor, the rules require the company to identify another factor reasonably related to safe and efficient operations.

Who may be covered

Seattle worker guidance says a worker may qualify if at least 25% of the worker’s work was performed in Seattle during the previous 180 days, or if the incident leading to deactivation occurred in Seattle.

The guidance applies to deactivations occurring on or after January 1, 2025. A worker who only made a small number of deliveries in Seattle, was deactivated before that date, or was removed for conduct unrelated to Seattle may need to examine the coverage rules more carefully.

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The ordinance can also cover temporary blocking or other loss of platform access, not only a permanent account closure, depending on the circumstances.

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What a deactivated worker can do

  1. Check the effective date. Confirm when access was restricted and save the original notice.
  2. Check geographic coverage. Review Seattle work performed during the prior 180 days and where the alleged incident occurred.
  3. Use the platform’s internal challenge process. Request the records and policy provisions supporting the decision.
  4. Meet the deadline. Seattle’s guidance says a challenge should generally be filed within 90 days after receiving the deactivation notice.
  5. Preserve evidence. Keep screenshots, messages, earnings records, customer communications, ratings, GPS or delivery records, and appeal correspondence.
  6. Contact assistance. Workers can consider contacting the Seattle Office of Labor Standards or its partner, the Fair Work Center.
  7. Consider legal advice. The city’s guidance says a private lawsuit may become available after the company’s initial response or 14 days after submitting the challenge.

A successful challenge is not an automatic guarantee of reinstatement. A worker may have rights to notice, records, and a fair process without having an unconditional right to continue using the platform.

What Seattle can enforce—and what it cannot yet decide

A major implementation detail is the enforcement timetable. From January 1, 2025, through May 31, 2027, the Office of Labor Standards can enforce certain procedural requirements, such as notice, access to records, and required challenge procedures.

During that period, OLS generally cannot investigate whether the platform’s underlying substantive reason for deactivation was permissible. Beginning June 1, 2027, OLS may investigate whether a network company deactivated a worker for a permissible reason.

That means the ordinance does not currently give the city a general power to overturn any deactivation. It is primarily a transparency and due-process protection during the initial enforcement period.

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The fee dispute involves more than one Seattle rule

Seattle’s App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance took effect on January 13, 2024. It created minimum-payment, transparency, and flexibility protections for covered app-based workers.

The deactivation ordinance is separate and took effect in January 2025. Seattle also requires covered network companies to obtain a city license and remit 10 cents per covered order or service.

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DoorDash may be responding to the cumulative cost of these measures, rather than to deactivation procedures alone. The available public announcement does not allocate the company’s claimed costs among the minimum-payment law, deactivation requirements, licensing fees, worker supply, or other operating expenses.

What the changes mean for Seattle customers

The actual total can vary by order. Customers should compare the complete checkout screen rather than only the advertised delivery fee. Relevant variables may include:

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  • delivery versus pickup;
  • order size and small-order charges;
  • DashPass status;
  • restaurant location and delivery distance;
  • menu-price differences between DoorDash and the restaurant;
  • taxes, tips, and other charges; and
  • the platform’s current pricing at the time of checkout.

The available announcement does not establish whether DashPass waives or reduces the Seattle increase, whether pickup avoids it, or whether orders involving Seattle restaurants but addresses outside Seattle are treated the same way. Those details require a current official checkout or fee disclosure.

What the changes mean for workers and restaurants

For workers, stronger notice and appeal procedures can make it easier to understand and contest an account removal. The trade-off, from the platform’s perspective, may include higher administrative costs. A platform could respond through pricing, tighter onboarding, reduced access, limits on supply, or other changes; the available sources do not establish which responses occurred.

For restaurants, higher customer charges could affect order demand, while worker-payment and compliance costs could affect platform economics. DoorDash’s claim of lower average monthly revenue per store should not be generalized to every Seattle restaurant without additional data.

Litigation context

Uber and Instacart reportedly challenged enforcement of Seattle’s deactivation law in federal court and a federal judge denied their effort to halt enforcement in January 2025. The available coverage does not provide enough detail to identify the case number, fully summarize the claims, or establish the later status of the litigation.

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That ruling should therefore be treated as procedural context, not proof that the ordinance is unconstitutional or that it has been definitively upheld on the merits.

Bottom line

DoorDash used Seattle’s broader app-based-worker regulatory framework to justify higher service fees, but the company did not disclose the exact increase in the announcement covered here. Seattle’s deactivation law generally requires notice, supporting records, and an internal challenge process for covered workers; it does not ban deactivation or guarantee reinstatement. The fee increase may reflect several Seattle policies, and DoorDash’s economic claims remain company assertions unless independently verified.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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