Class Action Claims DoorDash Deactivated Seattle Delivery Drivers Without Due Process

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that DoorDash routinely deactivates Seattle delivery drivers’ accounts without conducting a fair investigation or providing due process protections mandated by local law.

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The 25-page complaint contends that DoorDash’s process for deactivating Seattle Dashers—i.e., blocking their access to the DoorDash app or changing their status to be ineligible to accept offers—has violated Seattle’s App-Based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance, which took effect at the start of 2025 and limits the circumstances under which app-based workers performing services in Seattle can be removed from a platform.

Specifically, the suit relays, the law prohibits deactivations based on customer ratings, failing to complete offers due to circumstances outside the worker’s control, or background checks, except in strictly defined circumstances. Instead, the ordinance permits deactivation for actions reasonably related to the safe and efficient operation of the platform, such as in cases of “egregious misconduct,” the filing notes.

Importantly, the suit says, the App-Based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance requires DoorDash to follow specific steps when deactivating a driver, including conducting a “fair and objective” investigation, providing evidence that a violation occurred, accounting for “mitigating circumstances,” providing notice of deactivation 14 days in advance and on the effective date, and giving workers an opportunity to appeal or challenge the decision.

“Despite the Ordinance’s strict limitations on deactivations and clear and unambiguous notice, records, evidence and due-process requirements for deactivated workers, deactivations of covered Seattle Dashers have continued at a high rate,” the filing claims, noting that hundreds of Seattle Dashers are deactivated every quarter, sometimes dozens per week.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit was a Seattle Dasher who had allegedly completed more than 4,700 deliveries since 2020 with a 99-percent completion rate and a rating of 4.85 out of five stars. According to the complaint, the plaintiff’s account was abruptly deactivated in June 2025 after a late-night delivery from a restaurant and a 7-Eleven store. DoorDash allegedly informed the plaintiff that his deactivation was due to a “pattern” of accepting and not completing deliveries, resulting in cancellations.

The lawsuit claims that DoorDash provided no prior notice, supporting documentation, or actual evidence to justify the deactivation. After filing an appeal the next morning, the plaintiff said he received an automated denial within “mere minutes” from a no-reply DoorDash email address. The reply was “similarly uninformative” and contained no records, evidence or documentation, the case relays.

Only after contacting the Seattle Office of Labor Standards did the plaintiff hear from an actual DoorDash representative and receive additional information, the filing says. At that point, the plaintiff was allegedly told that, based on DoorDash records, he had been driving more than 300 miles per hour during deliveries and that his location data placed him in Germany at the time of deliveries in Seattle.

The plaintiff drove a Kia Niro hybrid, which tops out at around 100 miles per hour, the complaint notes, arguing that DoorDash relied on obviously flawed data while failing to conduct the investigation required by law.

Although his account was eventually reactivated after this process, the plaintiff does not intend to work for DoorDash again due to his “unfair, patently illegal and humiliating experience,” the case says. Per the suit, the plaintiff was deactivated for over a month, losing thousands of dollars of income.

The DoorDash class action lawsuit seeks to represent all independent delivery contractors whose access to DoorDash’s worker platform was deactivated between January 1, 2025 and the date of class certification and, during the 180 days preceding the deactivation, at least 25 percent of their completed offers (or offers canceled without cause) involved performing services in Seattle for DoorDash or whose deactivation was related to an incident or incidents that occurred while performing services in Seattle for DoorDash.

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