Lawmakers advance bill to regulate third-party food delivery services like DoorDash

Third-party food delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats could no longer include restaurants on their platforms if the restaurants don’t agree to it under a bill headed to the Indiana House floor.

The measure, HB 1279, requires food delivery services to get written agreement from restaurants before including them on their websites or apps.

Mike O’Donnell operates a couple dozen restaurants across Indiana. He said he had to repeatedly fight DoorDash to take one of his locations off their platform.

“We want to control our food and we can’t control it if we put it in somebody else’s hands,” O'Donnell said.

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O’Donnell said there are concerns about quality and food safety.

Under the bill, restaurants could sue third-party delivery services if they sell without permission. And Rep. Robb Greene (R-Shelbyville), the bill’s author, said those services could have to pay up to $50,000 per unauthorized order.

“Making the third parties think twice about wanting to overstep the bounds here,” Greene said.

No one representing third-party food delivery services testified across two committee hearings.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

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