It's a new year, and that means new rules for delivery platforms such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Postmates in California. The Fair Food Delivery Act of 2020, which was signed into law in September and took effect on January 1, requires third-party delivery platforms to have stated agreements in place with merchants to deliver food orders. 

The legislation was motivated by restaurants' pleas for protection, said California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the author of the state bill.

"We were hearing how their reputations were being put at stake because these delivery companies, without their authority, without even their knowledge, were placing their menus and placing their business onto their platforms," Gonzalez told Cheddar this could lead to a variety of errors — some examples include incorrect orders, out-of-date menus, inaccurate prices — and that the reasons for the confusion are oftentimes lost.

"The customer doesn't realize there was no agreement, and they'd go to the Yelp page of the restaurant and complain and really put them in a bad spot. There are some restaurants who don't want to use these delivery companies. They have a different relationship with their customers. So it should just be simple. There should be an agreement."

While establishing an agreement is an important step, Gonzalez said there are other challenges restaurants are facing.

"[The delivery companies] are not incentivized to do anything except break the rules for themselves. So we do have to watch closely what they're doing."

One example the assemblywoman brought up is the exorbitant fees restaurants must pay to be on popular food delivery platforms. Gonzalez said she hopes the Fair Food Delivery Act provides smaller establishments leverage when negotiating with food delivery giants.

"Your normal mom-and-pop restaurant really has no leverage with these companies, and we have to make sure that they actually do." 

She went on to say, "We have to make sure there is some leveling of the playing field between these small businesses and huge corporations that are doing the deliveries."

Gonzalez stated that these measures are being put in place to help restaurants not only during the pandemic but after the pandemic passes and life returns to normal as well. 

"It's 'how do they sustain a clientele in the long run,' and I think that that's [a] really important piece of this."

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