The Government of Ontario is temporarily limiting the service fees that third-party delivery companies, like Uber Eats charge to restaurants.
The move comes after an announcement was made earlier this week that introduced new pandemic-related restrictions, including a ban on indoor dining.
Effective immediately, any restaurant’s service fees, before taxes, will not exceed 20 per cent for orders delivered by a third-party delivery person using the Uber Eats platform.
Restaurant service fees, before taxes, will also not exceed 10 per cent for pickup orders, and will not exceed 15 per cent for orders placed through the restaurant’s website and delivered by a third-party delivery person using the Uber Eats platform.
These new service fees will apply until the relevant restrictions are lifted and indoor dining is permitted again. Currently, this could be as early as Jan. 17, based on the Ontario government’s recent lockdown mandate.
The temporary cap is specific to independent restaurants, that normally have indoor dining, with less than 10 locations across Canada.
This temporary change will apply to Ontario restaurants with nine or fewer locations under the same or substantially the same name across Canada, regardless of ownership.
The change does not apply to virtual restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and other retail merchants that are not dine-in restaurants. Once indoor dining resumes, fees will return to what they were previously.