Texans' gripes about a third party’s delivery of a restaurant meal will be directed to the service rather than the restaurant under a bill passed Wednesday by the state’s legislature.
The measure also curbs such controversial third-party practices as suggesting a restaurant is cooperating with a service when it actually hasn’t signed on as a partner, and keeping a non-participating establishment’s listing even after the place has objected. The legislation sets a 10-day deadline to remove the listing.
It also prevents the services from levying any charges that aren’t part of the participants’ written agreement. Many restaurants have complained about being hit with unexpected fees such as marketing expenses and charges for information calls that don’t result in a delivery order being placed.
“When restaurants were ordered to close their dining rooms, pickup and delivery became essential, and it became clearer than ever that restaurants and consumers need basic transparency and fairness protections in this evolving market,” Kelsey Streufert, VP of government relations and advocacy for the Texas Restaurant Association, said in a statement. “We immediately set to work with third-party delivery companies to draft SB 911, improving competition and fairness for all parties.”
The association says it worked extensively with DoorDash, Favor, Grubhub, Uber Eats and other stakeholders to draft the bill. Those parties expressed their satisfaction with the legislation.
The bill is part of a nationwide trend by states and municipalities to set guardrails for the practices of third-party delivery services. Those laws often set caps on the fees charged by the services and prohibit the deliverers from adding restaurants to their ordering platforms without the establishments’ permission,
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