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NOPE
Medium reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

Brasília labour court upholds the for-cause dismissal of a manager it found used ChatGPT to alter a delivery photo to contest an iFood customer's complaint

In a judgment of 30 July 2026, the 2nd Labour Court of Brasília (Regional Labour Court of the 10th Region) upheld the dismissal for cause, on 19 March 2026, of a manager hired in June 2024. The employer said he had used artificial intelligence to falsify photos of orders on the iFood delivery app. A witness told the court she saw him use ChatGPT to alter a photo of an incomplete order, in which two of four soft drinks had been sent, so that it appeared complete, and use it to contest the customer's complaint to iFood support. The judge found this an act of dishonesty and misconduct that broke the trust required of a manager, rejected his claim that the dismissal was fabricated in retaliation for a claim he had filed the day before, dismissed all his claims, denied severance items and ordered him to pay 10% counsel fees, suspended because he was granted free legal aid. The legal news site Migalhas reported the judgment on 3 August 2026. No appeal is reported.

AI system
ChatGPT
Occurred
19 Mar 2026
Reported
3 August 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Professional HarmFinancial LossLegal Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Work · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 documented. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, which a witness told the court the manager used to edit a photo of an incomplete order so that it showed all the items; the court accepted her account

What Happened

The dismissal. According to the judgment, the claimant was hired on 9 June 2024 as a manager and left on 19 March 2026. He filed a labour claim on 18 March 2026 seeking indirect termination over unpaid FGTS deposits, retained payroll-loan deductions and moral harassment. The employer answered that it had dismissed him for cause on 19 March 2026 for dishonesty, consisting of using artificial intelligence to falsify photos of orders on the iFood app, and for disrespectful conduct and spreading rumours about the owner.

The evidence. A witness declared that she saw him use ChatGPT to alter a photo of an incomplete order: knowing that only two of four soft drinks had been sent, he manipulated the image with artificial intelligence to simulate correct delivery and contest the customer's complaint with iFood support. Migalhas reports the employer's account that, when customers complained through iFood about missing items, he used ChatGPT to insert the missing products into the delivery image and sent the altered photo to the platform's support as supposed proof of correct delivery.

The judgment. The judge found the conduct extremely serious for a manager, holding that using technological devices to defraud delivery operations compromised the business's credibility with partners and consumers and amounted to dishonesty and misconduct under art. 482(a) and (b) of the Consolidation of Labour Laws. He rejected the claimant's argument that the dismissal was fabricated in retaliation for filing his claim, found the WhatsApp records showed a mostly cordial relationship, and dismissed all claims.

Limits. The judgment records the witness's account; the altered photos, the number of orders affected and any loss to customers or to iFood are not described. The claimant's own account of the AI use is not recorded in the published reasons.

Reported harm

A labour court upheld a manager's dismissal for cause after finding, on a witness's account, that he used ChatGPT to alter a delivery photo to contest a customer's iFood complaint; he lost severance items and his claims, and was ordered to pay suspended counsel fees.

Outcome

Resolved

The 2nd Labour Court of Brasília (case 0000335-04.2026.5.10.0002, filed 18 March 2026) recognised the dismissal for cause of 19 March 2026 as valid on 30 July 2026, rejected the claims for indirect termination, moral-harassment damages, FGTS penalties and loan-related damages, denied notice pay, proportional 13th salary and holiday pay and the 40% FGTS fine, and ordered him to pay counsel fees of 10% of the claim value with enforcement suspended; court costs were waived under free legal aid. No appeal was found in news searches on 23 October 2026.

What remains unknown

  • How many photos were altered and whether any customer or iFood lost money because of them.
  • The claimant's own account of the AI use, which the published reasons do not record.
  • Whether the claimant appealed to the Regional Labour Court.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The court accepted a witness's account that the manager used ChatGPT to alter a photo of an incomplete order so that it showed all the items, and that he used the altered image to contest a customer's complaint with iFood support. It held that conduct to be dishonesty and upheld his dismissal for cause on that ground, so the image ChatGPT produced for him is the conduct the sanction rests on. The employer also cited disrespectful conduct; the court's reasons rest on the image manipulation.

4 claims: 4 documented. What the statuses mean

Documented The claimant was hired as a manager on 9 June 2024 and dismissed for cause on 19 March 2026; the employer alleged dishonesty consisting of using artificial intelligence to falsify photos of orders on the iFood app.

Causal attribution. The judgment records the dates and the employer's ground for dismissal.

  • arq.migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'alegando que foi admitido em 09/06/2024 na função de Gerente, sendo desligado em 19/03/2026'; 'sustentando que o reclamante foi dispensado por justa causa em 19/03/2026 devido à prática de improbidade, consistente na utilização de inteligência artificial para fraudar fotos de pedidos no aplicativo iFood'
Documented The court found, on a witness's account, that the manager used ChatGPT to alter a photo of an incomplete order in which two of four soft drinks had been sent, to simulate correct delivery and contest the customer's complaint with iFood support.

Causal attribution. The judgment documents the court's acceptance of the witness's account; the AI use rests on her testimony as weighed by the court.

  • arq.migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'presenciado o reclamante utilizar o "ChatGPT" para adulterar uma foto de pedido incompleto'; 'manipulou a imagem por inteligência artificial para simular o envio correto e contestar a reclamação do cliente junto ao suporte do iFood'
  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'Uma testemunha afirmou ter presenciado o gerente utilizar o ChatGPT para adulterar a fotografia de um pedido entregue de forma incompleta.'
Documented The judge held the conduct to be dishonesty and misconduct under art. 482(a) and (b) of the labour code, upheld the dismissal for cause, dismissed all the claimant's claims and ordered him to pay 10% counsel fees with enforcement suspended.

Causal attribution. Established by the judgment's reasons and operative part.

  • arq.migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'configurando flagrante ato de improbidade e mau procedimento (art. 482, "a" e "b", da CLT)'; 'Reconheço, portanto, a validade da dispensa por justa causa em'; 'julgo IMPROCEDENTES os pedidos'; 'BRASILIA/DF, 30 de julho de 2026.'
  • migalhas.com.br(opens in new tab) supports · Portuguese
    'julgou improcedentes todos os pedidos formulados pelo ex-gerente e manteve a validade da dispensa por justa causa'
Documented The court rejected the claimant's argument that the dismissal was fabricated in retaliation for filing his claim.

Causal attribution. Established by the judgment; it records the claimant's contrary position.

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Portuguese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23; the English assertions are the agent's translation and no human translator reviewed them. The published judgment PDF (parties' names redacted), read in full. Applies to s1.

Read in Portuguese by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23; the English assertions are the agent's translation and no human translator reviewed them. Migalhas reports the judgment and links its PDF; it is a report of the same document. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Brazil.

The claim was heard by the 2nd Labour Court of Brasília, a Brazilian court, so the court country is BR. Neither the judgment nor Migalhas states where the business or the workplace is, so the event country is left unknown rather than inferred from the court's seat; the claimant's residence is not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-23: Published as a court-decided case: a labour court found, on witness evidence, that a manager used ChatGPT to alter a delivery photo to contest a customer's complaint and upheld his dismissal for cause on that ground. The case is documented by the judgment.

People described

A manager dismissed for cause whose claim was heard by a Brasília labour court; the parties are anonymised in the published judgment and are not named here

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the dismissed manager, whose own ChatGPT use the court found. Customers whose complaints were contested are not counted because the judgment describes no loss to any of them.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#brazil#labour-court#dismissal#chatgpt#image-editing#delivery-app

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Brasília labour court upholds the for-cause dismissal of a manager it found used ChatGPT to alter a delivery photo to contest an iFood customer's complaint. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-brasilia-labour-court-upholds-dismissal-of-manager-it-found-used-chatgpt-to-alter-ifood-delivery-photos

BibTeX

@misc{2026_brasilia_labour_court_upholds_dismissal_of_manager_it_found_used_chatgpt_to_alter_ifood_delivery_photos,
  title = {Brasília labour court upholds the for-cause dismissal of a manager it found used ChatGPT to alter a delivery photo to contest an iFood customer's complaint},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-brasilia-labour-court-upholds-dismissal-of-manager-it-found-used-chatgpt-to-alter-ifood-delivery-photos}
}

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