Instacart settles with FTC over deceptive practices but still faces
questions about pricing
[December 19, 2025] By
DEE-ANN DURBIN
Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds
under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission over
alleged deceptive practices.
The FTC said Thursday that Instacart has been falsely advertising free
deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing
service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must be paid for
customers to receive their groceries, the FTC said.
Instacart has also failed to clearly disclose that customers who enroll
in a free trial for its Instacart+ program will be charged membership
fees at the end of the trial. The FTC said hundreds of thousands of
customers have been charged but have received no benefits from
memberships or refunds. Instacart+ offers members free deliveries on
most orders for $99 per year.
The FTC said Instacart also advertises a “100% satisfaction guarantee,”
but customers who experience late deliveries or unprofessional service
are typically only offered a small credit that can be used toward a
future order and not a refund.
“The FTC is focused on monitoring online delivery services to ensure
that competitors are transparently competing on price and delivery
terms," said Christopher Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of
Consumer Protection.
Instacart denied the FTC’s allegations of wrongdoing Thursday but said
it reached a settlement in order to move forward and focus on its
business.
“Instacart is proud to offer a transparent, affordable and
consumer-friendly service. We provide straightforward marketing,
transparent pricing and fees, clear terms, easy cancellation and
generous refund policies – all in full compliance with the law and
exceeding industry norms,” the company said in a statement.
Instacart shares fell nearly 2% in after-hours trading Thursday.
The settlement comes as Instacart is facing separate questions about its
pricing practices.
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An instacart logo and an instacart webpage are seen in New York,
Sept. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
 Earlier this month, a report by
Consumer Reports and two progressive advocacy groups — Groundwork
Collaborative and More Perfect Union — found that Instacart charged
different prices for the same grocery items even though online
shoppers were filling their Instacart baskets at the same time and
at the same stores.
The report suggested that Instacart may be using artificial
intelligence tools to drive up costs for consumers.
The FTC said Thursday that it wouldn't comment on whether it will
open a separate investigation into Instacart's pricing policies,
following longstanding policy.
“But, like so many Americans, we are disturbed by what we have read
in the press about Instacart's alleged pricing policies,” FTC
spokesperson Joe Simonson said in a statement.
Instacart said Thursday that the FTC requested information on its
pricing tools and the pricing practice of the retailers it works
with as part of the investigation that led to the settlement. It
noted that the settlement didn't contain any allegations about its
pricing practices.
In its own blog post Thursday, Instacart stressed that it isn’t a
retailer and doesn’t control base prices listed on its website. It
said retailers often test prices in order to see how sensitive
consumers are when prices go up or down, and that’s what was
happening in Consumer Reports’ case.
Instacart also said the company and its retailers don't use
information about shoppers’ income, zip code or shopping history to
set prices.
Instacart said it encourages retailers to charge the same amount on
its website as they charge for in-store shoppers. Some retailers,
including Lowe’s, Ulta Beauty and Best Buy, already do that,
Instacart said, but many others don't.
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