A few months ago, Uber began to take a smaller cut from Toronto restaurants’ delivery fees, presumably to help them stay afloat during lengthy pandemic-related closures.
The changes in fees came as a result of a government of Ontario mandate, which limited the amount that third parties could retain from transactions. Restaurant service fees, before taxes, could not exceed 10 per cent for pickup orders, and couldn’t 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.
Now, though, Uber has raised its fees to 38 percent for restaurants, following news that in-person dining can resume at full capacity. Restaurant owners are not impressed at the thought of sacrificing more of their hard-earned cash so soon after re-opening.
“If Uber Eats takes an even greater cut, I can only imagine more restaurants will be calling it quits with them. So many restaurants are on there just to be seen and stay relevant, not even to make money, and now this?” asks Il Covo‘s Ryan Campbell. “All that hard work can’t be worth it.”
“I think it’s funny that Uber Eats takes their big, regular cut while their app and tablets are completely riddled with flaws and glitches,” Campbell adds. “They can’t fix them, and now they want a larger cut? Embarrassing.”
This isn’t the first time delivery companies have pulled such a stunt. Back in June 2021, when restaurants reopened for the summer, Uber and third party delivery companies raised their rates back up to 30 percent from 20 percent, where they had been capped for months.