NYC Delivery App Fee Cap Extended By City Council

New York City NY

30 July, 2021

11:16 AM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — A fee cap on food delivery platforms such as UberEats, Doordash and Grubhub sped through the City Council. Council members on Thursday voted to extend a cap that prohibits third-party delivery platforms from charging restaurants more than 15 percent per delivery order and more than 5 percent on other orders. The extension lasts until Feb. 17, 2022. "For far too long, there's been an imbalance of power between these third-party food delivery services and restaurants," Council Member Francisco Moya, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. "Small businesses should not be pressured into accepting these fees in order to remain viable and competitive. We have the opportunity and a responsibility to protect our mom-and-pop shops and ensure they can survive. To allow the temporary cap to expire would completely handicap the recovery of so many businesses that are just starting to get back on their feet." Another bill Council passed requires third-party companies to share customer information with restaurants, including their names, phone numbers, email information, and addresses. Customers may opt out of this. Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said this bill "will create a more fair and equitable marketplace that empowers local restaurants and their customers." "The relationship restaurants share with their customers is key to their success, and as we emerge from the pandemic, it is critical for their survival," Rigie said in a statement. "Unfortunately, for too long third-party delivery companies have withheld restaurants' own customer data from them, to ensure they couldn't directly manage their customer relationships in order to extract high fees from small businesses and to keep them hostage on their delivery platforms." Several groups have spoken out against this bill, including the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Urban League. A DoorDash spokesperson provided Patch with a statement against this bill: "We remain deeply concerned about the consequences of the City Council's decision to force delivery platforms to turn over sensitive customer data without customer consent and without any protections for that data. New York City policymakers not only shut out the concerns of more than 5,400 New Yorkers who wrote to them opposing this bill, but they ignored the voices of civil rights, immigration, and privacy groups who warned how dangerous this bill could be. If signed, the bill does not take effect for several months, and we will continue to fight to protect the privacy of our customers." Council also passed a number of other bills aimed at protecting small businesses — including one to prohibit third-party delivery sites from listing restaurants on their platform without written consent, and one prohibiting delivery platforms from requiring restaurants to compensate them or their delivery drivers if food and beverages get damaged after leaving the restaurant. Labor and human rights bills were also on the docket. Council passed a bill requiring human services contractors and some subcontractors "to enter into labor peace agreements with labor organizations seeking to represent their employees rendering services under City human services contracts." Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statment that this bill aims to prevent union-busting. Another bill extends Human Rights Law protections to domestic workers, regardless of staff size. This includes workers who provide in-home care for children or the elderly, as well as housekeepers. More information is available on City Council's website.