City Council committee OKs cap on restaurant delivery fees

Chicago aldermen agreed Tuesday to rein in restaurant delivery fees to throw a lifeline to neighborhood restaurants fighting for survival while being forced to close to indoor patrons for the second time since the pandemic.

A joint City Council committee on Tuesday approved a 10% cap on online delivery service fees, setting the stage for the two-thirds vote by the full Council needed to offer some immediate help to restaurant owners like Beverly Kim.

Kim is the James Beard Award-winning chef-owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant Parachute in Avondale. She was a 2011 contestant on the popular Bravo TV cooking show who opened a second restaurant, Wherewithall, with her husband, Johnny Clark.

“Some of us are choosing to avoid using deliver apps altogether, but at the risk of losing the ability to stay competitive, as the delivery apps search engines are much, much more powerful than our own marketing,” Kim said

Tuesday.

Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia said Chicago restaurants are “running out of options” after being forced to stop serving indoor diners again.

“If you make a $10 order through a thirdparty delivery service, a restaurant may get $7 of that order. The delivery service takes the rest. … There is just not enough money coming in right now to be able to afford paying such a high percentage of every meal you serve,” Toia said.

Amy Healy, head of public affairs for Grubhub, reiterated the Chicago-based company’s contention that fee caps “drive up diner fees and that results in fewer orders for restaurants and fewer work opportunities for drivers.”

Under the ordinance, UberEats, Grubhub, Postmates and DoorDash would also be prohibited from charging restaurants “any combination of fees, commissions, or costs that is greater than 15 percent of the orders placed through” the third-party delivery service.