Bengaluru restaurant associations have threatened to stop taking orders from Swiggy and Zomato from August 15 over commission disputes.

Multiple groups, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association and the Karnataka Hotel Association, say deductions have gotten so steep that many restaurants barely break even on delivery orders anymore. Money is at the heart of this.

Commissions alone range from 8% to as high as 28%, and once GST, packaging, payment gateway fees and promotional charges are stacked on top, total deductions can cross 40% of an order’s value.

Karnataka Hotel Association president PC Rao put it bluntly: on a Rs 1,000 order, restaurants often walk away with just Rs 450 to Rs 500. It’s not only the commission that’s grating on owners.

Discounts and ad costs are frequently deducted without their consent, they say, and there’s no compensation if an order gets cancelled after the kitchen has already prepped the food.

Around 21,000 restaurants are registered on Swiggy in Bengaluru, and the association expects most of them to join the boycott if terms don’t change. None of this is entirely new.

Restaurants fought back against heavy discounting in 2019 through the ‘Log Out’ campaign, and by 2022 the National Restaurant Association of India had taken the fight to the Competition Commission of India over alleged anti-competitive practices.

That case hasn’t been resolved yet. What is different this time is the search for alternatives. Some Karnataka restaurants are already testing Rapido’s newly launched Ownly service and pushing direct orders, while talks are on with Flipkart ahead of its food delivery entry.

The government backed ONDC network keeps coming up too, as a cheaper option worth exploring. Owners maintain they don’t want to walk away from the platforms entirely.

What they’re after is transparent settlement reports, an end to unauthorised deductions, and a fairer deal before the clock runs out on August 15.

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