Chicago caps third-party food delivery charges

The Chicago City Council regulated the fees that third-party companies can charge for delivering online orders from “food dispensing establishments” like restaurants during its Nov. 23 City Council meeting.

According to the meeting’s Journal of Proceedings, fees charged by third-party companies cannot exceed an amount equal to 10 percent of the total bill for each order.

The city council made a move to help out restaurants as well, prohibiting third-party companies from charging them “any combination of fees, commissions, or costs” that exceed “15 percent of monthly net sales processed through the third-party delivery service.”

Although consumers and restaurants will save money as a result of the regulations, food delivery companies still face problems. DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats reported losses in 2019, according to a story published in The Markup, while Chicago-based Grubhub was “the only one of the big four that has achieved profitability.”

Although they promise identical end results, food delivery services are not all the same.

According to a September article in c|net, DoorDash is “best for small orders” because it features “a lower order minimum than Uber Eats, meaning the small order fee is typically excluded if you're only ordering a single item.” Uber Eats is “best for promos” because “they're constantly offering free and 99-cent delivery fees for various restaurants.”