NRAI has asked India’s anti-monopoly authority to intervene in what it claims are Zomato and Swiggy’s “anti-competitive activities,” launching a new volley at the internet food delivery companies amid a long-running feud between the two parties. The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), which represents over 500,000 eateries across the nation, has petitioned the Competition Commission of India (CCCI), to look into a number of problems, including data masking, deep discounting, and platform neutrality violations by restaurant aggregators.
“During the (Covid-19) pandemic, the magnitude of anti-competitive practices of Zomato and Swiggy have increased manifold and despite numerous discussions with them, these deeply funded marketplace platforms are not interested in alleviating concerns of the restaurants,” NRAI said in a statement.
“We have been in constant dialogue with food service aggregators over the last 15-18 months to resolve critical issues impacting the sector. However, we have not been able to resolve these issues; we have therefore approached the CCI now to look into the matter and investigate them thoroughly,” Anurag Katriar, president of NRAI, said.
Deep discounting, according to restaurant operators, is harmful to their business.
“The discounting model has disrupted the restaurants business because it turns the focus of customers from value to discounts. It has totally commoditized the decision of who to order from,” founder and managing director of Olive group of restaurants AD Singh, Olive Bar & Kitchen, SodaBottleOpenerwala, and Toast & Tonic are just a few of the restaurants owned by him.
This isn’t the first time CCI has found itself in the middle of a conflict between the two parties. CCI proposed a series of seminars two years ago to bring the two parties together to talk about competition-related concerns. Since 2018, restaurants have had several difficulties with Swiggy and Zomato, according to the NRAI.
