Indian Authorities Ban Pre-Ride Tip Prompts on Ride-Hailing Apps

India's Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has mandated all app-based ride aggregators to cease displaying tipping prompts before or during a journey. This directive enforces Clause 14.15 of the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, which prohibits features that encourage tipping prior to or during a ride.

The ministry stated in an advisory dated August 11 that tipping must be entirely voluntary and should only be visible to users after the completion of a ride. The guidelines explicitly ban any feature, prompt, or interface element that "directly or indirectly encourages, induces, or creates an impression that payment of any additional amount may improve ride confirmation, driver acceptance, driver allocation, waiting time, or quality of service."

MoRTH has ordered aggregators to review their applications and remove any non-compliant features. If a platform wishes to offer a tipping option, it must prompt users only at the end of the ride. Furthermore, 100% of the tip amount must be credited to the driver without any deductions by the platform.

This action follows earlier scrutiny from consumer protection authorities, including a notice sent to Uber regarding its 'Advance Tip' feature. Reports from late 2025 indicated that a significant percentage of users continued to encounter these prompts, raising concerns about fairness and potential exploitation on ride-hailing platforms.