What to do if your restaurant is listed on a third-party marketplace without your permission

Third-party delivery providers have increasingly used non-partner restaurants to grow its business. These restaurants have no contract with these providers, so a restaurant might not even know that their restaurant is listed. DoorDash has listed such restaurants for years, and Grubhub, feeling the pressure to expand its listings, has recently started as well. 

Over the last two weeks, anger has boiled over from restaurant owners who have discovered their restaurants on these sites and have experienced a range of problems. These listings add to an ongoing issue for restaurants—losing control of their online identity.

Even if a restaurant doesn't partner with a marketplace, research has found that a majority of consumers blame the restaurant when something goes wrong with an online order, according to a study from marketing firm Zion & Zion.

Pim Techamuanvivit, the chef and owner of San Francisco-based Kin Khao restaurant, has been one of the loudest voices in this debate over the legitimacy of non-partnered restaurant listing.

She spurred on other restaurant owners to speak up. Techamuanvivit doesn't even offer takeout at Kin Khow, but she discovered that a menu for a different restaurant was listed on Grubhub under Kin Khao's name. The restaurant has since been removed.

To list a non-partner restaurant, providers find menus through automated searches, often pulled from a restaurant's website. Typically, a diner will pay a higher fee for such an order, and a courier from one these companies will order over the phone or in person and pay with a company-issued credit card. A customer most likely would not be aware that the restaurant was a non-partner restaurant. 

Representatives from Grubhub and DoorDash both stressed that a majority of the restaurants listed on their apps were official partners. DoorDash refers to the non-partnered orders as a "courier service for customers to restaurants in their neighborhood."

"For many restaurants, being listed on our app is considered a helpful trial test towards a formal partnership that provides additional benefits and services," according to a DoorDash spokesperson. "For those not interested in being on DoorDash for any reason, we immediately remove them from the platform upon their request.”

Here is the link to request removal of or edit of a non-partner restaurant menu on DoorDash.

Grubhub is newer to working with non-partnered restaurants. 

"Historically, we'd only chosen to list partnered restaurants, and we still firmly believe this is the right way to build the marketplace and the only way to drive long term value for diners, restaurants and drivers," according to a Grubhub spokesperson.

"But it also takes longer to build the network this way, and other food delivery companies have chosen to list non-partnered restaurants on their marketplaces for years to widen their supply of restaurants. We're trying this as a way to close the restaurant supply gap and drive more delivery orders to local restaurants."

A restaurant can change or remove a menu on Grubhub by emailing [email protected] 

Has your restaurant been listed on a third-party marketplace without your permission? Have you tried to get your restaurant menu removed? We'd love to hear from you. 

Contact Gloria at [email protected]

Find her on Twitter: @GloriaDawson