A New York judge has ruled that the lawsuit against third party delivery companies like Uber Eats and Grubhub can move forward. It’s a win for diners — who are behind the case — and all comes down to a single clause written in the contracts between the participating restaurants and the delivery companies.
The antitrust suit filed in July 2020 accused Postmates, Uber and Grubhub of monopolising delivery prices by not allowing restaurants who contract with them to sell menu items to consumers at lower prices on other platforms, including direct orders from the restaurants.
As a result, the suit states that “these anticompetitive agreements prevent both restaurants and other platforms from competing with defendants and thus force all consumers to pay supracompetitive prices.”
This is not the first time that third-party delivery companies have had to defend their practices legally during the pandemic. Currently, Grubhub is being sued by Washington, D.C. for alleged deceptive business practices, including obscuring fees and failing to disclose menu practice increases, and by restaurant operators by adding them to the Grubhub directory without their consent.
