New Monroe County law curbs ‘misleading’ advertising of local restaurants on third-party delivery apps

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC)— A new Monroe County law focused on cutting down the impact of third-party apps on local restaurants was officially signed in on Wednesday morning.

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says the Food Delivery Fairness Act prohibits food delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub from listing advertising, promoting, selling, or arranging deliveries of a restaurant’s products on their platform without a valid written agreement from the restaurant.

Bello claims some restaurants are added to these food delivery apps without their consent, and end up paying commissions on orders made on these apps. He said phone numbers on these apps can be misleading because they show local area codes but go directly to the delivery service, and not the restaurant.

The act was among two pieces of legislation related to third-party apps brought forward by Democratic Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart. The second would limit what the services can charge restaurants for delivery fees — capping it at 15% of the purchase price for each online order.

An emergency order by the county that capped fees expired earlier this year.

Additionally, under the fairness act, a restaurant can submit a written request to have a food delivery service remove the restaurant from the app, and the service has five days to comply.