SF Makes The 15% Cap That Delivery Apps Charge Restaurants Permanent

Image: @benjamin_1017 via Unsplash

Delivery apps like DoorDash and Postmates had been gouging restaurants with fees of up to 30%, sometimes even signing restaurants up for this without their permission. When the pandemic hit and the delivery apps started making outrageous bank, Mayor London Breed issued an order to cap their charges at 15%, but that was just temporary pandemic legislation. It became permanent at Tuesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, when the supes voted unanimously to make the 15% cap on delivery app fees permanent.  

“We really have an imperative to protect independent restaurants from the exploitative and predatory practices of third-party food delivery apps that seek to extract wealth from our local economy, harming our commercial corridors, and harming workers throughout the Bay Area,” the measure sponsor’s Supervisor Aaron Peskin said Tuesday. 

This doesn’t affect you the customer directly, you’re still going to pay the same fucking arm and a leg if you call for Uber Eats or GrubHub. It’s just that they can only charge the restaurants 15% instead of the old 30%. But it does affect you in that your favorite restaurants might not be closing left and right because of the predatory delivery apps.

“Some of these companies have a vested interest in putting restaurants out of business,” said Sup. Ahsha Safai, the bill’s co-sponsor. “They have had discussions and have been motivating conversation around what we call ‘ghost kitchens,’ and want to set up their own infrastructure where they can deliver food directly to consumers by bypassing this entire industry.”

Predictably, DoorDash is crying poor.

“DoorDash has always supported restaurants,” the company said in a statement earlier this year. “Pricing regulations could cause us to increase costs for customers, which could lead to fewer orders for local restaurants and fewer earning opportunities for Dashers.”

Bull fucking shit, DoorDash. Their CEO Tony Xu made $414 million in 2020 alone, and the company is valued at $60 billion. They claim to care about “earning opportunities for Dashers,” but not long ago they replaced the 20% default tip with a $0 tip. And DoorDash alone gave $52 million to last year’s Prop. 22 measure that completely undermines delivery workers’ rights. There is no reason for this to increase prices for customers, except to make sure the CEO makes his goddamn $414 million every year.

The delivery apps will still gouge restaurants. But here in SF they can only gouge them 15%, and we hope the trend catches on.