DC sues GrubHub claiming its app is full of hidden places and jacked up prices
GrubHub has been accused of deceptive business practices. The brand which is an American online and mobile app prepared food ordering and delivery Platform owned by Just Eat Take away which allows customers to patronize local restaurants, was founded in 2004, based in Chicago. The lawsuit which was filed by DC Attorney General Karl Racine levied a long list of accusations against GrubHub. According to him GrubHub has been charging additional fees and uses. Which he termed as a “Deceptive Marketing Strategy” in order to gain profits.
He termed fees like Small order fees, Serve fees and uses “Bait and Switch” for its advert and its free online ordering. Karl Racine, the Attorney General also accused GrubHub of the price hike on their menu item which has been discovered to be cheaper elsewhere, especially when a customer decides to order directly from a restaurant.
The lawsuit claims pointed out that the online food ordering and delivery platform has been charging their customers different types of fees for its services, which points to the fact that the menu price list on GrubHub is the same price that is on the restaurant website. Having called the attention of the online food ordering and delivery platform, they had failed to do the needful in making corrections and adequate adjustments concerning this. Observation and Investigation also show that GrubHub falsely claimed to be the assistance to restaurants trying to find their deets during the pandemic and discovered the listed restaurant on their Platforms don’t use their Platform.
According to the complaint “Thousand of DC, Restaurants are listed on the online food ordering and delivery Platform without their consent. This shows that GrubHub deceitfully took advantage of the local restaurant around its resident gaining its profit and sabotaging other business owners during the Covid’19 pandemic. Karl Racine also accused the online food and ordering Platform of creating a fake website that projected users of frequent patronage showing reviews as far back as 2011 to 2018 which is an act of using deceit and pretence to get clients and customers to buy into their ideas, and impersonating Restaurant through duplicate sites.
The company went ahead to create a generated mobile number for some of its partner’s restaurants which made customers think they were working hand in hand with these restaurants listed on their Platforms.
In their defence, Katie Norris the director of corporate communications for GrubHub in her conversation which protocol stated that she is disappointed that Karl Racine has accused the online food ordering and delivery Platform GrubHub and filed a lawsuit against them. She stated that they have always complied with the DC law in any and every situation and that all their practise at issue has been stopped and discontinued. She said they would stand up and aggressively defend their business in court as she added that they wouldn’t relent in serving DC Restaurants and Dinners. GrubHub owns various food delivery Platforms e.g Seamless and has spread its horizon to over 4000 cities.
The Online food delivery service stated in their defence that the app had stopped listing restaurants that had declined to work with them and had received its microsite and supper for support programmes. Katie Norris stated that moving forward, the online food ordering and delivery Platform will tell users the price might be lower when placing an order directly from the restaurant, and it will be very specific in Marketing the only order picked up will absolutely be free. She stated that the app has not in any way misrepresented its fees. GrubHub is not the only online food ordering and delivery platform that has come under fire. Sometime around last year, the city of Chicago has also sued DoorDash on similar grounds and they had worked on amending all accusations levied on them. Apparently, Karl Racine believes these app companies have extorted cities for free during the pandemic era and should be called to order.
