New Delhi: In what could become a new point of contention between Zomato and its restaurant partners, the food delivery aggregator has started levying a “long distance service fee” for orders being delivered beyond a 4 km radius, according to people aware of the developments.
The Gurgaon-based company is levying a ?15 per order charge on deliveries within a 4-6 km radius for orders valued above ?150. However, for deliveries beyond 6 km, the company is charging a fee of ?25-35 depending on cities regardless of the order size.
While Zomato has communicated with restaurant partners that the total service fee — including the long-distance charge — will be capped at 30% (excluding other charges), restaurants that ET spoke with claimed that overall commissions could rise to as much as 45%.
“There are changes to the commission terms every few months and it is frustrating to do business this way without any clarity on commission structures. Several restaurants are in touch with each other to formally raise a complaint with Zomato over this, and are contemplating going off the platform for a day in protest,” one of the restaurateurs said.
Additionally, Zomato has also approached certain restaurants with revised agreements to reflect the change of its parent entity’s name to Eternal, another restaurateur said. “Through these new agreements, Zomato has changed certain terms and introduced clauses to penalise restaurants for not maintaining price parity with other platforms. They are also saying that a restaurant may be suspended or penalised if it is found to be encouraging customers to order from outside Zomato,” the person said.