Order takeout? Proposed California law aims for truth in all online restaurant menus
The California Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban online food-delivery platforms from advertising restaurants’ menus without consent, potentially preventing companies like Grubhub and DoorDash from taking a cut of revenue from takeout orders.
Proponents say it would help “level the playing field” between dining-app giants and the small restaurants whose food they deliver — often, restaurant owners allege, without their approval.
“Our bill to require a prior agreement before a delivery app may offer a restaurant’s food is just common sense, and it even earned bipartisan support today on the Assembly floor,” wrote Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, who sponsored the measure, in a statement.
The nonprofit food news organization The Counter last year reported that Grubhub had purchased thousands of web domain names that looked similar to actual restaurants. These sites can have restaurants’ names, brands and menus — but when a customer orders, the delivery company takes a commission from the total price.
“We’ve heard too many stories of small restaurants being taken advantage by delivery apps that list their menus without authorization,” she wrote.
A previous version of the bill included wording that would have required Grubhub, DoorDash and other delivery apps to share basic information about their customers with the restaurants they order from. That way, if something goes wrong — the food gets cold, soup spills, an order arrives late — restaurants have a way of protecting their reputation by following up with their customers.
But that part of the bill was taken out after it raised concerns over internet privacy.
Lee Tien, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the current measure also could be challenged. He said advertising menus, like printing a store’s prices or publishing information in a newspaper, is protected under the First Amendment.
“Those are facts. You can talk about them,” he said.
A representative from Gonzalez’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the constitutional concerns of her bill.
The California Restaurant Association supports the bill.
“The State Assembly didn’t just pass this bill — they moved it forward with an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote,” Jot Condie, who leads the association, said in a statement. “Could it be that most reasonable people recognize that a tech company should have permission from a local restaurant before listing its menu, brand, and service on a delivery app? We think so. And, today, California’s State Assembly sided with small, independent business owners.”