The FTC Sent $23.8 Million to Grubhub Drivers and Diners — Here's the Check-Cashing Deadline and How to Verify Yours

Grubhub drivers and diners who were shorted by the company's practices are being paid back — and the payment has a clock on it. On August 12, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was sending more than $23.8 million across 640,038 payments to people harmed by Grubhub's conduct. Most of that money is going out as mailed checks, and mailed checks don't stay valid forever.

What the FTC says Grubhub did

The FTC and the Illinois Attorney General brought the underlying case against Grubhub alleging the company:

• Deceived drivers about pay. The FTC says Grubhub misled drivers about how much money they'd make delivering food.
• Blocked diners from their own funds. According to the FTC, Grubhub flagged accounts holding high gift card balances and blocked those diners from spending money that was theirs.
• Listed restaurants without consent. The FTC alleges Grubhub added restaurants to its platform and charged them fees without the restaurants' permission.

The settlement order requires Grubhub to advertise driver pay honestly, give diners a real mechanism to dispute a blocked account, and list restaurants only with their consent going forward.

The deadline that matters right now

This is the part easy to miss in the headline dollar figure. Per the FTC's Grubhub Refunds case page, recipients are told directly: "please cash it within 90 days" for a check, and "please accept it within 30 days" for a PayPal payment. The FTC's press release says checks began going out around the August 12, 2026 announcement, which puts most check-cashing windows closing around mid-November 2026 — but the exact date is on your own check, not a general rule, so check it rather than estimate from the announcement date.

A check that goes stale doesn't just delay your money. The FTC's general refund FAQ says that if a check isn't cashed, "if there is still money available in the settlement fund, we may be able to reissue your payment," and that reissues are typically processed "once a month" — a slower path than just depositing the check when it arrives.

How the real payment works

Two things worth confirming if a Grubhub-related payment shows up:

• No claim form is required. The FTC's August 12 announcement says it identified the 640,038 affected consumers itself and is sending checks or PayPal payments directly — you're not expected to have applied for this.
• No payment or personal information is ever required to receive it. The FTC's refund FAQ states: "The FTC never requires you to pay upfront fees or asks you for sensitive information, like your Social Security number or bank account information." If a message about this settlement asks you to pay a "processing fee" or send your bank login before you can get paid, that's the scam version, not the real one.

If you're unsure whether a check or PayPal notice is legitimate, verify it against the FTC's own case page at ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/grubhub-refunds, and call the refund administrator's listed number — 1-888-446-4992 — rather than any number that arrived with the message itself.

The same pattern as every other FTC refund round

This is the same verification habit worth applying to any unexpected settlement payment, whether it's the FTC's AT&T throttling refunds now arriving by Zelle or the expanded Amazon Prime settlement payments: go to the regulator's own case page first, use the phone number listed there (not one texted to you), and treat any request to pay upfront or hand over account details as disqualifying on its own. If something looks off, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Bottom line

If you drove for or ordered through Grubhub and get a check referencing this settlement, deposit it — don't let it sit past the 90-day window printed on it. If you get a PayPal payment, accept it within 30 days. And if anyone contacts you asking for money or account details to "release" a Grubhub refund, that's not how the FTC says this program works.