We are independent restaurant and bar owners, and our relationship with third-party delivery platforms has grown increasingly strained. Every order starts in our kitchens, with our food, our labor, and our brand behind it, and the platforms provide a valuable convenience to our customers. But as delivery has grown, we haven’t shared in the success. They set high commissions, own the customer relationship, control our ranking in the marketplace, and in some cases list our restaurants without asking us. When we don’t perform well, they encourage us to spend more on advertising. For too many of us, delivery isn’t a profitable line of business but a marketing expense. That is not a normal commercial relationship, and we are asking for your help to fix it.
The problems:
- Platforms charge independent restaurants commissions of 15% to 30% per order, plus extra fees for premium placement, marketing, and payment processing.
- Large chains often negotiate lower commissions, advertising credits, and premium placement. Independents can't.
- Platforms don’t allow us to access customer data, so we can't follow up on service failures or build loyalty with our own guests.
- Some restaurants have found themselves listed on platforms they never agreed to join, with menus or prices they didn't set.
- While these platforms grew, the independent restaurant sector lost thousands of locations and chains expanded.
- For many of us, delivery is not a profitable line of business, but a necessary marketing expense.
Delivery is here to stay, and we aren't asking you to stop it. We are asking for the same thing we expect from every other vendor: agreed terms, transparent pricing, and a fair division of the value we create. Cities across the country have already adopted some of these protections. Our experience shows these regulations work, but a city-by-city patchwork leaves most independent restaurants unprotected. A national standard would give every restaurant the same basic terms.
What we are asking Congress to do:
- Cap delivery commissions at 15% of the order total.
- Require a written agreement before a platform lists any restaurant, ending unauthorized listings.
- Give restaurants access to the customer data generated by their own sales.
- Let restaurants control their own menu pricing.
- Require transparency in the marketplace algorithm, so restaurants can better understand their ranking, and have tools to improve their visibility, beyond paying for more advertising.
- Create a clear process to correct or remove unauthorized listings, misrepresented menus, and ghost kitchen operations.
- Move forward with the FTC's rulemaking on unfair and deceptive fees in online food delivery, so diners and restaurants see the full price of an order up front with every fee identified. Any rule should target platform conduct and not restrict restaurants from adjusting menu pricing for delivery.
Transparency is overdue, but a fully disclosed 30% commission is still a 30% commission. Restaurants cannot negotiate their way out of a market they don’t control. We call on lawmakers to regulate delivery apps with enforceable protections, so they stop causing harm to the restaurants that make them possible.