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Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

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Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#41

Post by camhenlin »

chrisshroba wrote: post #30

Tbh I don't see a major problem with this. If folks want to pay someone (Grubhub) to go pick up food for them, why should the restaurants be allowed to say no? > Food may not travel well. Fair point, but if the customer still wants it, that's on them. > But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant. If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those f…

> > Restaurants may not be able to handle the additional load placed on them by these services.

> I empathize with this one and don't really have a rebuttal.

Isn’t that classic supply and demand situation? Raise prices to drop demand until load drops to acceptable levels. More money for the restaurant as well as acceptable workload for the restaurant staff.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#42

Post by pg_bot »

chrisshroba wrote: post #30

Tbh I don't see a major problem with this. If folks want to pay someone (Grubhub) to go pick up food for them, why should the restaurants be allowed to say no? > Food may not travel well. Fair point, but if the customer still wants it, that's on them. > But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant. If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those f…

How are you certain that the food you are getting is from the establishment you ordered it from? Why can't I run a shadow kitchen pose as your restaurant and steal your business?

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#43

Post by abernard1 »

s_dev wrote: post #7

Trading under another brands name -- by listing them as an ordering place with an unofficial dark kitchen associated in your app -- seems like the most egregious form of trade mark infringement. Why aren't GrubHub concerned about the legal reprecussions of this?

> Why aren't GrubHub concerned about the legal reprecussions of this?

Because the company is firmly in Team Blue, and they control the House right now.

This is the same organization where the CEO told his employees that if they voted for Trump, they should resign.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#44

Post by jdmichal »

pg_bot wrote: post #42
chrisshroba wrote: post #30

Tbh I don't see a major problem with this. If folks want to pay someone (Grubhub) to go pick up food for them, why should the restaurants be allowed to say no? > Food may not travel well. Fair point, but if the customer still wants it, that's on them. > But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant. If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those f…

How are you certain that the food you are getting is from the establishment you ordered it from? Why can't I run a shadow kitchen pose as your restaurant and steal your business?

This is a strawman unless I missed where it's being specifically claimed. Obviously posing as the restaurant and serving your own product is fraud.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#45

Post by heliodor »

mabbo wrote: post #19

I hope there's a strong precedent set here. Companies like Grubhub list restaurants on their site/app, but put the wrong phone number on it- one that goes to their own people instead. That's clearly some kind of fraud or misrepresentation. Makes me feel like I should setup a phone number and a website called something like "GrubhubHelp.com", and list a help number for assistance with GrubHub orders. Then when custome…

Grubhub is taking a deliberate action misrepresenting the restaurant and that action is harming the restaurant (in more ways than one). I imagine they can make a successful case but it's going to be a long expensive fight.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#46

Post by jartelt »

chrisshroba wrote: post #30

Tbh I don't see a major problem with this. If folks want to pay someone (Grubhub) to go pick up food for them, why should the restaurants be allowed to say no? > Food may not travel well. Fair point, but if the customer still wants it, that's on them. > But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant. If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those f…

>> But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant.

> If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those folks' ratings of the food be factored into the restaurant's rating?

If the restaurant has chosen to focus on dine in service because that generates the much of their revenue (alcohol sales, desserts, etc.), it would be a shame if their ratings were damaged by delivery customers. People check ratings/reviews before dining out, so having a bunch of bad reviews due to unwanted delivery could really affect dine in traffic as well. It's not fair to expect the restaurant to cater to these delivery customers when they not actually chosen to run a delivery service.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#47

Post by colinmhayes »

chrisshroba wrote: post #30

Tbh I don't see a major problem with this. If folks want to pay someone (Grubhub) to go pick up food for them, why should the restaurants be allowed to say no? > Food may not travel well. Fair point, but if the customer still wants it, that's on them. > But that may lead to unfairly low ratings for the restaurant. If (say) 30% of the restaurant's patrons choose to get the food via food delivery, why shouldn't those f…

Image is very important for restaurants. If a customer has a bad experience, even if it's because of a third party driver they might not order there again. Many restaurants have their own driver, competing with grubhub hurts not just the driver, but the restaurant because they make extra money on deliveries.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#48

Post by packetlost »

mrguyorama wrote: post #13
s_dev wrote: post #7

Trading under another brands name -- by listing them as an ordering place with an unofficial dark kitchen associated in your app -- seems like the most egregious form of trade mark infringement. Why aren't GrubHub concerned about the legal reprecussions of this?

>Why aren't GrubHub concerned about the legal reprecussions of this? When is the last time a company was SERIOUSLY threatened by the repercussions of doing something illegal in the US? When was the last time a company was fined/sued out of existence for something they were doing to average people?

It happens all the time, but usually to small businesses and startups, not established businesses with lots of money and lawyers.

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#49

Post by mgkimsal »

sharkweek wrote: post #29
mrguyorama wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why aren't GrubHub concerned about the legal reprecussions of this? When is the last time a company was SERIOUSLY threatened by the repercussions of doing something illegal in the US? When was the last time a company was fined/sued out of existence for something they were doing to average people?

All I know is I’m still waiting for my Equifax settlement check. Any day now, I’m sure!

I got a mortgage in 2005. Company had problems with fraudulent stuff and class action suit brought against them. Outside of whatever their behavior was that triggered the class action, they had poor service to me as an individual, so I'm not terribly surprised they probably cut many other corners (ethically/legally/etc). Anyway... I got my class action settlement checks yesterday. $71 and $74. w00t.

EDIT: this was more in reaction to "still waiting on those Equifax checks" comment. Just give it another 10 years...

Re: Grubhub sued for listing restaurants without permission

#50

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

jdmichal wrote: post #27
muststopmyths wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the service represents the restaurant as actually participating in the transaction. If the food gets delivered cold or the order gets messed up, the restaurant is likely to get bad Yelp reviews which can actually affect business.

Well, the restaurant is participating, in the sense that they are making food for a customer. They just don't understand who the customer actually is. Secondly, are the customers not ordering the food from Grubhub ? Why would they be confused about a middle-man being present?

Because Grubhub makes it sound like they're a delivery service that the restaurants hired. On their front page right now, for example, they say "we tell you the restaurants that deliver to that locale" - that's not an accurate description if Grubhub is the one deciding whether to deliver.
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