Instacart to pay $5M over paper-mail hiring discrimination

Maplebear, Instacart's parent company, agreed to pay $5 million to settle DOJ and EEOC claims that it discriminated against U.S. applicants. From December 2023 to February 2026, the company required U.S. candidates for PERM-linked roles to mail paper applications while accepting online submissions from others. Up to $4 million goes to a compensation fund and $1 million in civil penalties.

• Up to $4M set aside for affected applicants
• $1M in civil penalties paid to the U.S. government
• Paper applications required from December 2023 to February 2026
• OpenAI, Apple and Facebook settled similar PERM cases