From August 2021, 1,California law mandates that takeaway platforms can only provide services to restaurants that have direct partnerships, and cannot grab menus of restaurants that have not signed a contract at will.The entry into force of this law includesThird-party food delivery service software including Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Postmates deleted tens of thousands of restaurants on the platform.
When the epidemic first began last year, many restaurant owners suddenly discovered that they could order their own takeaways on third-party takeaway service platforms such as GrubHub, Seamless, and DoorDash. January 2020,Pim Techamuanvivit, the owner of Kin Khao, a Michelin-starred Thai restaurant in San Francisco, was shocked to discover that GrubHub had put her restaurant on it without her permission and entered the restaurant menu.
The restaurant has been added without the permission of the restaurant owner to make the platform appear to have more restaurant resources than its competitors and attract more customers.According to the Wall Street Journal, as of September, there were 9 restaurants on Postmates.Of these applications, only 70 have reached a partnership agreement with the platform.
However, for restaurants, some takeaway platforms often publish inaccurate or outdated menus without the owner’s consent. When the restaurant is unable to complete the order, these takeaway platforms will only tell the customer: "The restaurant has rejected your order. "In this way, customers will leave a bad impression on the restaurant; some platforms even make a commission on the restaurant for every incoming call, regardless of whether the customer has successfully placed an order.
California’s new law stipulates that if a restaurant is to be listed on a food delivery platform, the food delivery platform must sign a contract with the restaurant.The law goes into effect on the first day of 2021.After the law goes into effect, the 40,000 California restaurants on Postmates must be converted to paid partnerships or must be deleted.
In addition to illegally including restaurants in the scope of platform services, most areas in California have also regulated the upper limit of service commissions drawn by foreign sales platforms.When signing a contract with a food delivery platform in the new year, restaurant owners must pay attention to the local service commission limit, which is mostly 15%.
Additional state takeaway platform service fee limit in some regions:
Berkeley City: 10%
Santa Clara County: 15%
San Francisco: 15%
San Mateo County: 15%
Los Angeles City: 15%
Alameda County : 15%
References:
https://sf.eater.com/2021/1/4/22213402/restaurants-removed-postmates-grubhub-california-law-2021
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/12/07/berkeley-lowers-cap-on-food-delivery-apps-even-more/
https://dot.la/l-a-caps-grubhub-postmates-other-delivery-apps-service-charges-to-15-2646151968.html
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