LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – Grubhub is accused of hiding delivery charges from customers who prefer to order in during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawyers at Kaliel PLLC filed suit against the company Feb. 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court, and the company removed the case to federal court on March 12. The suit says promises of flat delivery fees are broken when the company puts delivery charges on its users in two other ways.
A portion of the delivery fee is hidden as a “service fee” that is bundled with sales tax, the suit says. It amounts to 15% of the food order amount.
“But it is not a ‘service fee’ at all,” the suit says. “Because the only ‘service’ provided by Grubhub is food delivery, this ‘service fee’ is by definition an additional hidden delivery fee.”
The other way Grubhub hides its delivery fees is to secretly mark up food prices by 15-20% without telling customers, the suit claims.
“In other words, the identical food costs more when ordered through the Grubhub app than it does when ordered in person at a restaurant or through the restaurant’s own website or app,” the suit says. “Because Grubhub’s only function is to provide food delivery services, this price differential is another hidden delivery fee.”