The ongoing row between the food service aggregators and the restaurants has taken an advanced step after the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) refuses to stop its protests against food delivery giants such as Zomato, Swiggy and others.
Now, the NRAI has written a letter to the food inventory and delivery platforms with eight broad issues that they want these platforms to address immediately.
The move comes after weeks of ongoing protests by the restaurant association including a #LogOut Campaign, urging restaurateurs to sign out of the services of UberEats, Swiggy, Zomato and FoodPanda.
“It is very arbitrary because we feel there is no mechanism on why someone pays 12% versus why someone pays 30% commission,” said Anurag Katriar, head of NRAI Mumbai Chapter.
The primary concern of the restaurants is over the deep discounts offered by the delivery platforms which are cutting the restaurants’s margins and profits.
The association said that in the current environment, deep discounts ranging from 30% to 70% are being deployed all year, which has been hindering the profitable growth for restaurants and distorting the market.
The body has asked aggregators to build a more standardised and structured contract and commission system.
Furthermore, the body has also accused FSAs of forcing restaurants to be a part of their delivery services. NRAI urged aggregators to let partner restaurants decide which services they want to opt for.
The association has also highlighted the need for transparency around customer data that’ll allow the restaurants to build their own database.
The NRAI further said that the creation of private labels and dark kitchens (delivery-only kitchens in low volume service areas) was in direct conflict of interest between the role of a market place and a restaurant owner.