FTC sues Uber over ‘deceptive’ sign-ups

Uber Technologies was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which claims the rideshare and delivery company hurt consumers through “deceptive billing and cancellation practices” as part of its flagship subscription service.

In a complaint filed Monday, the FTC alleges the company charged consumers for its Uber One product without their consent, misled users about the program’s savings and made it “unreasonably” burdensome to cancel the service. The agency found users can be required to navigate as many as 23 screens and take up to 32 actions to cancel, according to an FTC statement.

Uber shares dropped, extending declines after the announcement to as much as 5.3% in New York.

The company denied the FTC’s claims.

Chipotle to open first mexico location

Newport Beach-based Chipotle Mexican Grill said Monday it’s planning to open a restaurant in Mexico early next year, its first location south of the border in its 30-year history.

Chipotle is partnering with Alsea in Mexico City, a company that operates Domino’s, Starbucks, Burger King, Chili’s and other brands in South America and Europe. Alsea plans to explore additional expansion in Mexico and other locations in the region.

Nate Lawton, Chipotle’s chief business development officer, said the company is confident that its menu will resonate with Mexican diners.

“The country’s familiarity with our ingredients and affinity for fresh food make it an attractive growth market for our company,” Lawton said in a statement.

But at least one U.S.-based Mexican chain has struggled to make it in Mexico. Taco Bell opened a few outlets in Mexico City in 1992 but they closed within two years. The brand opened another store in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2007 which also didn’t last.

The expansion arrives as President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexican imports could increase costs for U.S. Chipotle locations.

Chipotle gets around half of its avocados from Mexico, but so far those are not subject to tariffs.

app tries using ai to detect lying teens

Instagram is beginning to test the use of artificial intelligence to determine if children are lying about their ages on the app, Meta Platforms said Monday.

Meta has been using AI to determine people’s ages for some time, the company said, but photo and video-sharing app will now “proactively” look for teen accounts it suspects belong to teenagers even if they entered an inaccurate birthdate when they signed up.

If it is determined that a user is misrepresenting their age, the account will automatically become a teen account, which has more restrictions than an adult account.

Teen accounts are private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to.

“Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends autoreplies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. Meta says it trains its AI to look for signals, such as the type of content the account interacts, profile information and when the account was created, to determine the owner’s age.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.