Classify this story under moves that came too late. Early on in the pandemic, we advised readers to eliminate the middle man and order delivery meals directly from the restaurant. The strategy, we explained, would put more revenue in the restaurant’s pocket, increasing the business’s chances of staying solvent until the storm blew over.
Now that COVID is approaching the day when it will become an unhappy memory, New York City is finally cracking down on the exorbitant fees charged by restaurant delivery services, such as Grubhub, UberEats, and DoorDash.
“Food delivery apps will face a permanent cap on the commissions they can charge restaurants under a bill passed by the New York City Council late Thursday,” the New York Post reports.
The bill would limit the amount that apps can charge restaurants to 15 percent of food orders for delivery services, 5 percent for advertising and other miscellaneous services and 3 percent for credit card processing fees.
If signed into law, the New York City council bill would also require food delivery apps to apply for operating licenses, which would be reviewed every two years.
The announcement of the bill would have been welcome news back in June of 2020 when some of these services were taking advantage of the situation by charging restaurants fees as high as 30%. If any of your favorite restaurants went under during the pandemic, you can thank these greedy companies for helping to speed their demise.
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