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Uber accused rival food delivery services of engaging in anti-competitive practices in a lawsuit filed in California on Friday.
The San Francisco-based company says its closest competitors in the food distribution market are working exclusively on restaurants, threatening to issue penalties or drop off restaurants on the Doardash app. Ta.
Uber is seeking unspecified damages and a ruling that forces Doordash to change its business practices.
“Restaurants across the country say Doordash’s bullying tactics leave them with impossible choices. They meet their demands and pay the price.”
“Because competition should empower restaurants.”
The lawsuit opens a new front in the battle between businesses for market share in the competitive market for food delivery services accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There is no merit in the Uber incident,” Doordash said Friday. “Their claims are based on their lack of basis and inability to provide quality alternatives to merchants, consumers or couriers.”
Doordash Drive runs its own branded apps and websites with restaurants enabled and chain removed, but all delivery logistics are handled by Doordash. Customers will be charged per order.
Doordash launched a so-called first-party service in 2016, but Uber followed suit with the version “Uber Direct” four years later.
The companies generate a large portion of their revenue from the services that offer restaurants, including delivery fees and advertising on their respective platforms. Uber posted two-year profits earlier this month, but Doordash reported its second quarterly profit this week since it was released in 2020.
Doordash is the largest player in the US food delivery market, and previously said it has around 90% of all major restaurants in the country on its platform.
Uber said last year that a key restaurant company “suddenly notified” that it would not deploy services on the company’s platform for several brands. “The decision raised the commission’s fees directly from the commission’s punitive threat,” he said in a court filing.
The ride company alleged that Doordash threatened to impose a “punitive fee” that increases the fee between 10% and 30% if the customer chose to use the services of both companies.
Doordash denies the claim.
