WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of states have sued Toast Inc., the Boston company that sells technology to restaurants, accusing it of charging fees owners never clearly agreed to, failing to deliver the support it advertised and trapping customers in contracts that are difficult to end.

The complaint was filed Oct. 29 in federal court in the Northern District of California, the FTC said. The commission listed its co-plaintiffs as the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah, plus California, represented by Los Angeles County and San Francisco city lawyers. Accounts differ: The Boston Globe described seven states and Los Angeles County, while the Colorado Attorney General's Office named Arizona as a participant, though Arizona is not on the FTC's list.

Toast sells point-of-sale equipment, software and payment processing. According to the FTC, its automatically renewing plans average about $900 monthly. The plaintiffs say Toast marketed a pay-as-you-go plan with free hardware and software, but no device actually costs nothing. "In fact, none of Toast's hardware is $0, and Toast customers frequently claim that they cannot get customer support at any hour of the day," the complaint says, as quoted by Payments Dive.

Only the FTC detailed specific charges: an $85 monthly processing bill for restaurants that close temporarily, and an undisclosed $150 penalty for each month left when a customer cancels. The FTC and Payments Dive said Toast kept a 99-cent fee added to some online orders from September 2021 to late July 2023. The Globe reported that tens of thousands of customers have complained.

The suit seeks a permanent ban on the practices, money for customers and civil penalties. Colorado also alleges a breach of its auto-renewal law.

"Small businesses are the backbone of communities across the country, and they deserve tools and services that are transparent, reliable and truthful," Christopher Mufarrige, who leads the FTC's consumer protection bureau, said in a statement.

Toast disputes the claims, according to Payments Dive. "We are prepared to defend our business and fight this unprecedented action through litigation," the company said in a press release quoted by the outlet. None of the allegations has been proven in court.