NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Claims are now open for Tennessee drivers who were wrongfully overcharged, ticketed, or booted by Metropolis Technologies at its parking lots across the state. The claims process is part of a settlement reached with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office, and payments are expected to go out in early 2027.
Do you think you have been wrongfully issued a ticket from Metropolis? Let us know by emailing YourVoice@NewsChannel5.com. This is a story we've followed through on for years, and your voice helps drive our reporting.
To file a claim, visit www.metropolisparkingsettlement.com.
According to the attorney general's office, some eligible consumers will receive an email notice with a unique Claimant ID and Access Code, which is the fastest way to file. However, you do not need to receive an email to be eligible — you can still file a claim on your own. You may need to provide documentation to receive payment.
The attorney general's office says you may be eligible if you:
- Paid for a parking session at a Metropolis parking lot in Tennessee between July 1, 2021, and January 6, 2026
- Were wrongfully overcharged, ticketed, or booted
- Have not previously received a full refund from Metropolis for that parking session
"I encourage every eligible Tennessean to file a claim and collect what they're owed as Metropolis works to make things right," Skrmetti said in a statement. "This settlement means real money back where it belongs, with the hard-working people who got ripped off."
The attorney general's office says if you have questions, visit the settlement website. For additional help, contact the settlement administrator by emailing info@metropolisparkingsettlement.com or by submitting a contact request form on the settlement website.
Years of complaints, years of reporting
I have spent years covering complaints from Nashville-area drivers about Metropolis, the company that manages parking lots in and around downtown Nashville. The most common complaints centered on apparent errors with the company's license plate readers — technology that appeared to misread plates and trigger charges or violation notices for drivers who were never in the lots in question.
Skrmetti's office received more than 300 complaints about the company before launching its own investigation.
"How bad was it for consumers?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates reporter Jennifer Kraus asked Skrmetti in January.
"It was pretty bad," Skrmetti said.
Among the drivers I spoke with in 2022 was Ralph Barnes, an Overton County man who received two parking tickets in the mail totaling $173 — for a truck he said had not been in Nashville for months. A comparison of the truck pictured on the tickets and Barnes' truck showed they were not the same vehicle. When Barnes disputed the tickets, Metropolis initially denied his dispute and told him there was no avenue for appeal.
In another case from 2023, Gloria Lopez received a text message from Metropolis claiming she had just entered the Elliston Place garage on Louise Avenue in Nashville — a lot she said she had never visited. Because Lopez had previously parked at a different Metropolis lot, the company already had her credit card on file and automatically charged her for the visit she said she never made.
Metropolis later told NewsChannel 5 that the incident involved two vanity license plates in its system, both bearing similar characters, and that the system confused the two.
"Once we determined that the system confused two very similar plates, we refunded the charge to Ms. Lopez," Metropolis said.
The company also addressed its license plate reader technology at the time, saying: "Like most consumer technology, our technology is consistently evolving. Just as computers push out operating system updates regularly and cell phones improve from one version to the next, our technology is constantly getting smarter."
Metropolis has said it "looks forward to turning the page on long-past operational issues and continuing to bring forward a set of best-in-class parking standards in Tennessee," adding that its agreement with the attorney general's office allows it "to put those issues to rest once and for all."
What else the settlement requires
Beyond the restitution fund, the settlement requires Metropolis to post clear and conspicuous pricing signage at all of its lots and to charge no more than what is posted. The company's customer support line must be staffed by people who can assist customers with parking issues, and Metropolis must automatically issue refunds when its technology malfunctions and wrongfully charges a consumer.
"I'm cautiously optimistic that this will make things better. And if it doesn't, we'll keep going. But this is a good deal. It's great for consumers in Tennessee," Skrmetti told Jennifer Kraus in January.
The attorney general added: "The ultimate message is treat consumers right when you're dealing with them the first time or you're going to have to deal with my office and then go back and fix what you did wrong."
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a news report originally written by NewsChannel 5 reporter Jason Lamb. When using this tool, both Jason and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team checked all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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