Mayor signals aggressive labor enforcement in landmark app platform lawsuit
New York City filed a historic lawsuit Thursday against Motoclick, a food delivery platform accused of systematically stealing wages and tips from couriers, marking Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first major labor enforcement action. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, led by Commissioner Samuel Levine, alleged that Motoclick and CEO Juan Pablo Salinas Salek violated minimum pay requirements and engaged in deceptive practices including charging workers ten-dollar cancellation fees and deducting refunded order costs directly from paychecks, sometimes leaving couriers owing the company money. The administration sent warning notices to 60 delivery app companies signaling that enforcement of new Delivery Worker Laws taking effect January 26 will be swift.
Systematic Exploitation Revealed
The lawsuit alleges Motoclick violated Local Laws 107 and 108, which protect worker tips and require minimum pay of 21.44 dollars per hour. The city received 20 complaints related to Motoclick practices before launching its investigation, demonstrating pattern violations. Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su emphasized that affordability requires ensuring workers earn dignity and fair wages, not subsistence poverty.
A Warning to All Platforms
The administration sent identical warning notices to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and other major delivery platforms, citing specific violations of city law. The notices reference Local Laws 107, 108, 113, 123, and 124 establishing tipping protections, pay transparency, minimum wages, and bathroom access. Commissioner Levine, former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, promised aggressive enforcement against companies exploiting workers. Analysis revealed that delivery app giants cost workers more than 550 million dollars in lost tips through deceptive interface changes.
The Precedent This Sets
The lawsuit seeks to shut Motoclick down completely and recover millions in stolen wages and damages for workers. Rather than settling quietly, the Mamdani team names company executives personally, signaling that leadership bears responsibility for corporate misconduct. This represents a dramatic shift from recent administrations that treated labor protections as secondary to business interests. The case serves as a template for how the Mamdani administration will approach enforcement, prioritizing worker voices over corporate convenience.
What Workers Can Expect
Mamdani announced the lawsuit at the Deliveristas Unidos worker center in Brooklyn, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to centering worker voices in governance. The mayor stood alongside worker advocates who fought for years to establish basic protections in the gig economy. The city estimates Motoclick and CEO Salinas Salek owe workers substantial compensation for wage theft.
Enforcement Means Real Action
The Mamdani team is investigating whether design changes made by major platforms to tipping systems violated city law, citing evidence that those companies engineered interface tricks reducing average tips from 3.66 dollars to just 76 cents per delivery. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is preparing additional enforcement actions with multiple companies expected to face scrutiny in coming months. The administration doubled DCWP’s budget, expanding capacity to investigate and prosecute violations. The lawsuit filed Thursday represents only the opening salvo in what promises to be a prolonged effort reforming how the gig economy treats workers. For deliveristas across the city, the message resonates clearly: a new era has begun where government prioritizes workers over platforms. Recent scholarship from Labor Department studies documents the exploitation and the FTC enforcement guidance provides additional support for worker protections while the mayor’s team implements local standards protecting deliveristas.
