The difference between what delivery services like Doordash and what Taxi companies are doing is that Doordash is holding themselves out to be the company.

There's several instances where Company A has had Service Provider B set up a website in the name of Company A, update Google Listings to replace the Phone number and website of Company A with their own version of the site.

Then when an unwitting customer calls the number given, they're actually talking to Service Provider B, not Company A.

Taxi services don't hold themselves out as the personal driver service for the company you're going to.

I totally agree with you. The business of Doordash should be legal while the exact practices you described above are illegal.

The problem is how to allow the former while preventing the latter, in a way that is reasonable for small businesses.

Just prosecute the fraudulent misrepresentation of the restaurant.

Lawsuits aren't cheap both in terms of time and money.

The state prosecutes crimes.

Not if there isn't a law that is being broken.

You mean like "fraudulent misrepresentation"?

But I bet I can’t start a taxi service and call it Uber Shuttle Service for job applicants and build a website with Uber logo, phone number, and everything and when job applicants call me I pretend to be Uber?

Hey why stop there? maybe I can ask the job applicants for their personal information letting them believe they are talking to Uber and if they look like good candidates, I can build a website with information I gathered from them and start my own employment agency, call it quadruple bites or something and then call FAANG companies and offer to place candidates...

I think a big part of the problem is the misrepresentation/false advertising.

However, the goal I think is more sinister. For example, I believe Walmart decides how much it wants to pay suppliers who want to have their stuff sold at Walmart. If a delivery app is big enough, it can dictate the prices and terms of sale with a restaurant and demand deep discounts and forbid restaurants from making the deal public. The challenge is how does a delivery app become big enough to do that? Feels like a chicken and egg problem.

Yes. That's unfortunately how internet business work these days, use 'strategy' to dominate the market, and it has the power to dictate terms and profit from it. Although Walmart market dominance are protected with the shops and locations they own, apps such as Uber or Doordash where it is mainly a utility, the market dominance is not protected in any way. Once they start to charge more to make a profit, consumer can always go for an alternative app for it.