News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge restaurants. Parent comment

Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by castlecrasher2 on Thursday July 09, 2020 @10:00AM (#23780306)
>What is everyone's problem? Why do we want to interfere with this?

Because customers who order through Grubhub/Doordash blame the restaurant for issues such as high prices and wrong orders instead of Grubhub/Doordash. So on one hand, the restaurant gets increased business but on the other they never interact with the customer directly and so their business' reputation depends on Grubhub/Doordash/etc to not fuck up, which is unlikely.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by admax88q on Thursday July 09, 2020 @10:15AM (#23780473)
That's a messaging/marketing issue, which we regulate all the time.

It would be better and fairer to legislate that GrubHub and others must be clear about where their pricing comes from rather than legislating what their prices should be.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by ceejayoz on Thursday July 09, 2020 @10:24AM (#23780576)
That's what this does.

They can still charge whatever they want for their fee. They just can't hide their fee in the list price of your sushi.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by admax88q on Thursday July 09, 2020 @10:31AM (#23780666)
What? Are we reading the same article? As far as I can tell this new rule caps fees at 10%, it doesn't say anything about charging whatever they want, while being more transparent or disclosing the fees more clearly.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by ceejayoz on Thursday July 09, 2020 @10:35AM (#23780712)
The headline says "Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps can charge RESTAURANTS". There's no cap on what they can charge customers.

Legal: "Your pizza is $10. Our fee is $3, delivery is $5. Total bill $18." Restaurant gets $10.

Not legal: "Your pizza is $10 (but we quietly take $3 of that). Our fee is $3 (but we hid an extra $3 in the pizza!). Delivery is $5. Total bill $18." Restaurant gets $7.

Legal: "Your pizza is $7. Our fee is $6, delivery is $5. Total bill $18." Restaurant gets $7.

Legal: "Your pizza is $10. Our fee is $6, delivery is $5. Total bill $21." Restaurant gets $10.

Legal (but not great for business): "Your pizza is $10. Our fee is $600 because 'fuck you, we have VCs to pay', delivery is $5. Total bill $615." Restaurant gets $10.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Portland approves 10% cap on fees that food delivery apps... by jiggunjer on Thursday July 09, 2020 @11:50PM (#23787967)
Am I the only who one thinks it's weird they itemize their service price into two types of delivery fee? Just say pizza $10, delivery $8. Restaurant gets between $9-$10.
[ Parent | on HN ]