The FTC is mailing $23.8 million to Grubhub drivers and diners - here is who gets paid

The Federal Trade Commission this month began sending payments totalling more than $23.8 million to people harmed by the food-delivery company Grubhub. If you drove for Grubhub or ordered through it, there is a real chance a check is on its way to you - and a shorter deadline on it than most people expect.

What the money is for

In December 2024, the FTC and the Illinois Attorney General alleged that Grubhub ran “an array of unlawful practices”. Two of them affected consumers directly: the company was accused of deceiving drivers about how much they would actually earn delivering food, and of blocking diners from their own accounts and funds. A third charge - listing restaurants on the platform without their permission - hit small businesses rather than shoppers.

Grubhub settled. Under the terms it agreed to pay $25 million, most of it earmarked for refunds, and to change how it operates: advertise driver pay honestly, give users a way to dispute a blocked account, and list a restaurant only with that restaurant’s consent.

The payments now going out are the refund half of that deal.

Who is getting paid, and how much

The FTC says it is sending checks or PayPal payments to 640,038 affected consumers - a mix of drivers who were misled about earnings and diners who lost access to accounts or money. Most people will get a paper check in the mail; a smaller group will be paid through PayPal.

The agency has not published a flat per-person figure, because payment size tracks the harm each person suffered. Spread across 640,038 people, the $23.8 million averages to roughly $37 each, but individual amounts will vary above and below that.

The part that catches people out

There is a clock, and it is different depending on how you are paid:

• Checks must be cashed within 90 days, as printed on the check itself.
• PayPal payments must be redeemed within 30 days.

Miss the window and the money can lapse. If you were a Grubhub driver or customer in the relevant period, watch your mail and your PayPal notifications over the coming weeks rather than assuming it will sort itself out.

The scam to watch for

Refund programmes like this one attract impostors, so the FTC repeats the same warning every time: the Commission never requires people to pay money or hand over account information to get a payment. Anyone who calls, texts or emails asking you to pay a “fee” or confirm your bank login to release a Grubhub refund is running a scam.

The genuine refund administrator is Analytics Consulting LLC, reachable on 1-888-446-4992, and the FTC keeps the official case page and a frequently-asked-questions list on ftc.gov.

The bigger number

The Grubhub payout is one line in a much larger ledger. The FTC says its actions led to more than $435 million in redress to consumers across the country in 2025 alone. That is the practical value of these cases to a household: not the headlines, but the checks. This one is worth cashing before the 90 days run out.