{"id":6109,"date":"2026-06-07T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6109"},"modified":"2026-06-07T14:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:32:41","slug":"doordash-instacart-face-critical-ftc-fight-over-consumer-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=6109","title":{"rendered":"DoorDash, Instacart face critical FTC fight over consumer fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Ordering through platforms like DoorDash or Uber Eats costs nearly 80% more on average than picking up, a LendingTree study found.<\/p>\n
Service fees, delivery charges, and inflated menu prices all add up on the final bill, often without a clear explanation of where each dollar goes.<\/p>\n
The Federal Trade Commission opened a preliminary rulemaking process in April, asking whether new federal rules should target fee practices in food and grocery delivery.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of stakeholder comments flooded in before a May 18 deadline, revealing a fierce divide between delivery platforms and the restaurants demanding transparency.<\/p>\n
The outcome could determine whether delivery orders show the full price upfront or continue adding fees at checkout.<\/p>\n
The FTC puts delivery app pricing under the microscope<\/h2>\n
The rulemaking targets whether delivery apps engage in \u201cunfair or deceptive\u201d fee practices, the same legal framework the agency used against ticketing platforms.<\/p>\n
Drip pricing involves gradually revealing fees throughout the checkout process, and the FTC noted that some studies report total delivery costs running 25% to over 90% higher than picking up the same order, the Federal Register filing stated.<\/p>\n
That tactic targets shoppers who have already spent time choosing their food and are far less likely to walk away once the inflated total appears.<\/p>\n
\u201cClear and truthful pricing is essential to competitive markets,\u201d Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the announcement.<\/p>\n
DoorDash alone generated $11.46 billion in U.S. revenue in 2025, according to its 2025 annual report on Form 10-K, with revenue derived from merchant commissions, consumer fees, advertising, and membership programs.<\/p>\n
The scale of that revenue helps explain why the industry has fought so aggressively to shape this regulatory process from the very beginning.<\/p>\n
Restaurants and grocers say they are caught in the crossfire<\/h2>\n
Independent restaurants and grocery stores filed some of the most forceful comments before the May 18 deadline, urging the FTC to adopt new federal transparency rules.<\/p>\n
The Independent Restaurant Coalition warned that hidden delivery fees often lead consumers to blame restaurants for high prices that are beyond their control.<\/p>\n
Delivery apps charge restaurants commissions of 15% to 30% on every order, the Independent Restaurant Coalition stated in its filing. <\/p>\n
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Those fees weigh heavily on restaurants that already operate on net profit margins of just 3% to 5%, leaving owners with few good options.<\/p>\n
Restaurant operators must either raise delivery prices and alienate cost-conscious customers or absorb the commission costs and risk losing money on every order.<\/p>\n
The National Grocers Association also backed the FTC\u2019s intervention, arguing that consumers have little insight into whether platform prices are marked up from in-store levels.<\/p>\n\n
Restaurants and grocers are urging the FTC to crack down on hidden delivery fees that drive up costs for consumers.<\/p>\n
Delivery platforms argue current pricing is already transparent enough<\/h2>\n
The Flex Association, an industry lobbying group for major delivery companies, argued that existing policy frameworks already push platforms toward fee transparency.<\/p>\n
The association claimed members already show fees as early as possible and argued that displaying all costs before checkout is not feasible.<\/p>\n
Instacart requested no new rule or a narrowly tailored alternative, contending that all-in pricing would display confusingly high prices for individual grocery items.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
About 40% of Americans say they’re ordering food delivery once a week or more… there’s not a whole lot of us that can afford to add an extra 80% onto our food budgets<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Instacart\u2019s position came just months after it paid a $60 million settlement to the FTC over allegations it falsely advertised “free delivery” while charging undisclosed service fees at checkout, the agency’s announcement noted.<\/p>\n
Grubhub took a different position from its industry peers, shaped by the company\u2019s own recent regulatory history with the Federal Trade Commission.<\/p>\n
The company paid $25 million to settle FTC junk fee charges and now wants the agency to extend those same transparency requirements to its competitors.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Officer Howard Migdal outlined that position in a last-minute comment, proposing that the FTC apply Grubhub\u2019s post-settlement reforms across the entire delivery industry.<\/p>\n
DoorDash\u2019s conspicuous silence and signs of coordinated outreach<\/h2>\n
DoorDash controls the largest share of the food delivery market, yet the company did not submit its own formal comment to the FTC.<\/p>\n
The public record does reveal patterns suggesting organized outreach by delivery platforms seeking to influence the process through their workers and customers.<\/p>\n
At least nine delivery drivers submitted comments using an identical template beginning with \u201cAs a Dasher, I am concerned,\u201d the public comment record showed.<\/p>\n
Similarly, at least 11 Instacart customers wrote in, using a shared template, praising the company\u2019s service without addressing the proposed regulations.<\/p>\n
Those patterns raise questions about how delivery platforms can shape the very public comment process regulators rely on to gauge consumer sentiment.<\/p>\n
Political headwinds could block new delivery fee protections<\/h2>\n
Even with strong backing from restaurants and consumer advocates, the current political environment creates significant uncertainty about whether any rule will take effect.<\/p>\n
The FTC\u2019s junk fee rule for tickets and hotels took about two and a half years from its initial rulemaking notice to final implementation.<\/p>\n
A similar timeline would push any final delivery-fee rule into late 2028, near the end of the current presidential administration\u2019s term.<\/p>\n
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson was the sole dissenter when the agency approved the ticket and hotel fee ban in a 4-to-1 vote in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Ferguson argued in his dissent that the prior administration’s window for rulemaking had closed, though he specified that his vote should not be understood as a position on the rule’s merits<\/p>\n
Applying a stricter mandate to food delivery would go further than what California, a regulation-friendly state, has enacted through its junk fee laws.<\/p>\n
That gap between state-level action and the proposed federal standard suggests the fight over food delivery pricing is far from settled.<\/p>\n
Related: DoorDash changed food delivery. This tech cuts delivery out of the equation.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Ordering through platforms like DoorDash or Uber Eats costs nearly 80% more on average than picking up, a LendingTree study found. Service fees, delivery charges, and inflated menu prices all… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[2933,2560,8570,612,203,1701,8571,8238],"class_list":["post-6109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-consumer","tag-critical","tag-doordash","tag-face","tag-fees","tag-fight","tag-ftc","tag-instacart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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