Moscow authorities will check delivery rates of Yandex and Delivery Club

The Moscow City Hall will check the delivery services of Yandex and Delivery Club for violations of antitrust laws. The delivery was complained by restaurateurs, who consider the tariffs for the delivery of food from restaurants unreasonable.

The check was announced by Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy Vladimir Yefimov at the Council for Strategic Development and Implementation of National Projects under the Government of Moscow. At a meeting of the council, Vice-President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia Sergey Mironov complained that a “monopoly of Yandex and Delivery Club” in the field of food delivery was established in the capital, and operators began to set the delivery cost at their own discretion, sometimes the amount reaches 35% of the cost of the entire order.

Mironov said that food delivery operators are taking advantage of the situation, as restaurants sometimes have no choice but to go to delivery, and because of the 35% tariff, restaurants start to go into the red, and work becomes simply unprofitable. The mayor's office promised to sort it out, especially at the meeting the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov asked Yefimov about it.

“If there are indeed signs of a violation of the antimonopoly law, on behalf of the Moscow government we will write an appeal to the Federal Antimonopoly Service,” Yefimov said.

A representative of Yandex.Food said that the company is open to dialogue and "ready to study in detail the essence of questions to us if they are received." Just today, Yandex.Food and the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia (FRiO) announced that they are zeroing out the commission on orders from takeaway restaurants by the end of the year. Up to 120 million rubles will be allocated for these purposes. Independent restaurateurs and chains with no more than three establishments will be able to take advantage of the support.

Delivery Club told The Bell that it has not received any inquiries from market participants yet, but is "open to interact" with them. “In the spring, we were the first to launch a restaurant support program that allowed local players to connect to the service with zero commission. Over the past six months, the number of restaurants operating with the platform has doubled to over 30,000. Also, for small and medium-sized businesses, there was a delivery subsidy program initiated by the Moscow government and implemented with our participation,” the Delivery Club press service said. According to a company representative, the interaction of restaurants with delivery services has reached a new level, and this can help establishments return to pre-coronavirus profit indicators.