Are you sure the discount is not due to different taxes applying? In my country, there is a 19% tax on most goods and services, but only a 6% or so tax on food. Sitting down means you pay the high tax, and takeout means you pay the low tax.

It depends on the jurisdiction. In the UK I believe that hot food is taxed in the same way whether it is on-premises or takeaway.

Anyway, at least in the UK and some other EU countries there is no obligation to lower the price because tax is lower (since prices to consumers are inclusive of all taxes) so if tax is indeed lower it can be a bonus for the restaurant (on top of cost savings), which makes Deliveroo's fee even less of a "robbery".

Many of the restaurants on Deliveroo were/are already exclusively takeaways though. I think that in many cases these services have the whiff of rentier capitalism. A third party has inserted themselves into a situation where you previously dealt directly with the restaurant with the intent of extracting value by making both sides dependent on them.

The other factor here is the absurd losses these players are chasing. The capital being pumped in to prop them up feels like a hugely distorting factor that is hiding the actual costs of the sector and preventing new entrants/alternatives from entering the market.

The upside is convenience. I definitely prefer paying by card/web based ordering but I wonder if there's a way of providing the benefits of these services without handing control over to that middleman.

> Many of the restaurants on Deliveroo were/are already exclusively takeaways though.

That's not my impression, but the pandemic has had a radical effect.

> I wonder if there's a way of providing the benefits of these services without handing control over to that middleman.

There is but again this has a cost and if you're an independent restaurant it may make more sense to outsource all of this by using a platform. Some platforms allow you to only use them for handling online order taking and payments (Just Eat?) if you think handling delivery in-house makes sense (but I think it often does not).

> Some platforms allow you to only use them for handling online order taking and payments (Just Eat?)

Deliveroo allows this too, but frankly I'd happily pay a premium to have those restaurants deliver using Deliveroo rather than themselves, as when it's the restaurant themselves you lose visibility of how far along the delivery is in the app. As a result, for restaurants that deliver themselves that will count against them when I consider where I want to order from.