Editorial: Governor should sign legislation regulating food delivery services

During the pandemic, food delivery services such as Grubhub became something many of us couldn’t do without. And we’ve never quite been able to break the habit.

What some of us didn’t realize is that a number of the restaurants listed on food delivery apps never agreed to participate in the service. So, if the food arrived cold or jumbled and with high delivery fees attached, it wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault. Yet the eatery often received our wrath or, at the very least, moved down a notch in our personal rating system.

As IBJ’s Peter Blanchard reports this week on Page 4A, many restaurant owners grew tired of being blamed for something they couldn’t control and never signed up for. So they began to urge lawmakers to do more to regulate the third-party food delivery industry.

The regulations have come in many forms. Indianapolis joined major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles in 2021 by passing a temporary ordinance that limited delivery fees to 20% of a meal’s price during the pandemic.

Georgia is considering a measure that also focuses on food safety and cleanliness. Capitol Beat News Service reports that the legislation would ban smoking or vaping inside delivery vehicles, and pets would be prohibited unless they are service animals.

But many of the new laws have focused on requiring the food delivery apps to have a signed contract with any restaurant whose food they deliver. California, Illinois and New York City all have such laws.

Thankfully, Indiana is now close to joining the fold. The Indiana House voted 95-0 on Tuesday to give final legislative approval to a measure that would require any third-party delivery service to receive written consent from a restaurant before it could pick up or deliver food fromthat facility.

The proposal also would entitle restaurants to up to $50,000 in civil damages from third-party delivery services for each unwanted transaction.

The bill now goes to Gov. Eric Holcomb, and we urge him to sign it into law so that restaurant chains and independent restaurateurs can protect the brands and reputations they work so hard to build.

As Rep. Robb Greene, the Shelbyville Republican who authored the bill, told IBJ, all of the major delivery services—DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates and Uber Eats—have engaged in non-partner deliveries at some point. But he made a point of singling out Grubhub and Postmates for special attention.

Grubhub did not directly respond to IBJ’s questions about such accusations, but a company spokesperson said Grubhub “seeks to support restaurants by helping them generate more orders and reach new diners” and is “developing tools that make it easy for restaurants to claim their menus.”

DoorDash stopped adding restaurants to its platform without their consent in November 2020, according to a spokesperson.

For any bad actors that remain, the legislation is necessary to protect the reputation and business of all hard-working, well-meaning restaurateurs.•

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