The Uber carpooling giant filed a complaint on Friday against Doordash, accusing the delivery of suffocating competition by intimidating restaurant owners in exclusive offers.
Uber lightens in the trial, deposited at the California Superior Court, that its main rivalries have intimidated restaurants by working only with Doordash. Uber claims that Doordash, which holds most of the food delivery market in the United States, threatens restaurants with penalties of several million dollars or the withdrawal or demotion of the position of companies on the Doordash application .
More specifically, Uber claims that Doordash press restaurants to conclude almost exclusive exclusive agreements for first -party delivery services, which means that Doordash insists on managing only orders placed via the websites of restaurants, explains Uber.
“Uber’s case has no merit,” a Doordash spokesman in a Techcrunch email said on Friday. “Their statements are not founded and according to their inability to offer traders, consumers or letters a quality alternative.”
Doordash and Uber Eats are best known for their respective applications to connect restaurants, consumers and workers in the concert economy. Consumers use applications to find and control food such as pizza, egg rolls or Thai pad from restaurants. A worker of the concert economy resumes and delivers food to the consumer.
But the two companies also compete with their own white marking delivery services – called Uber Direct and Doordash Drive on demand – which were both launched in 2020. These services are cheaper for restaurants, allowing customers to order directly From the own applications of restaurants and websites, while Uber and Doordash manage letters behind the scenes.
Uber claims in its prosecution that Doordash manages first -party deliveries for more than 90% of the largest corporate restaurants in America, and it alleges that Doordash used anti -competitive practices to win the market.
“More than a million merchants combine Uber Eats because we have helped them reach more customers and have given them the freedom to decide how they want to develop their businesses with delivery,” said Sarfraz Maredia, manager Americas for delivery to Uber, said in a press release sent by e-mail. “We have heard more and more restaurant complaints that Doordash tactics limit this freedom and punished them for looking for better options. We hope that this deposit puts an end to these unfair practices so that restaurants can choose what suits them best without fear of penalty or compensation. »»
In an example of the trial, Uber declared that a “important catering company” without name told the company that it would not go forward with a deployment of Uber planned for a long time in several of its brands of restaurants. The reason, says Uber, is that Doordash would have threatened to increase the prices it charges the catering company to use the third -party delivery services of Doordash if he continued to use Uber Direct.
Uber says that it was not a unique event, but rather that several customers told the company that they felt “as if they had a” head pistol “, that Doordash is a” monopolist “, And that they are victims of intimidation by Doordash. “”
Uber asked for a trial with jury; The company did not specify the amount of damages in the complaint. However, Uber claims that these anti -competitive practices cost the company “millions of dollars in income” and have also limited Uber growth directly.
