It's disheartening that there's so much due diligence required just to conduct the most basic transactions right now. I have a narrow list of vetted restaurants, where I understand the costs and to the business, the delivery model, the safety (food handling and Covid precautions), and I only take out from these particular places. I tried a new place recently, only to find out I had been duped by Grub-hub, even though…
The due diligence is because the restaurants offer a terrible experience. Most still do not have an independent online ordering function. They want me to call. Most still haven't set up meaningful profiles on Yelp and other review sites. So I would need to root around to find contact information. That is in addition to needing to give my credit card over the phone, not knowing how long the order will take, and needin…
Suppose you want to go to McDonald's. I buy the McDonald's domain name. I put a credit card form on my site, and I "deliver" McDonald's to you. I charge a $40 surcharge for the privilege.
There is no way in hell that McDonald's would have to go begging at realmcdonald's.com because of my shenanigans. They'd have no patience for this bullshit. In real life they'd sicc a DMCA notice and a ton of lawyers on this and I'd lose my webhost and the sheriff would come visit me and who knows what else. They'd get McDonald's.com fast enough to make your head spin, and I'd be pushed out of that business.
Why is it different for restaurants?
Same problem: instead of me it's a company, and instead of McDonald's it's a small restaurant. But the principle is the same.
In domain name hijacking, it's presumed wrong because customers think they're reaching McDonald's when they're really calling me. In the GrubHub case it's exactly the same thing.
I don't understand why it's wrong when I do it, but it's not a problem GrubHub does. After all, McDonald's doesn't deliver, and I may own a very fine delivery business, but I'm still not allowed to coast off their name for my own business.