Restaurants in Karachi Boycott Foodpanda
The All Pakistan Restaurant Association (APRA) has cited Foodpanda's 'unfair practices' as the reason for dis-associating from the popular delivery app.
It was reported yesterday that APRA has announced it's boycott of Foodpanda with the Chairman of the Association, Muhammad Naeem Siddiqui, stating how Foodpanda's being 'unfair' with its demands of taking 35% of the commission as well as asking restaurants to discontinue their own Vendor Delivery as well as forcing restaurants not to make business dealings with other delivery services - thus killing their competition.
“Our members have also complained that Foodpanda asks them to work with restaurants exclusively, which falls under anti-competitive business conduct and can be challenged in Competition Commission of Pakistan.” said APRA's President.
Siddiqui has also emphasised the hit the restaurant business took due to COVID 19 and is now stressing on the importance of stakeholders supporting these small businesses in order to 'save the restaurant industry' according to Chef Saad Siddqui. Muhammad Naeem Siddiqui has stated that if the issue isn't resolved, the boycott will be the first step in discontinuing services nationwide with the delivery giant.
“We did raise similar concerns earlier but there has been no permanent solution from their high-ups,” he said. “It has led us to announce suspension of services by all our members.”
Restaurants such as Espresso and Kaybees are amongst the restaurants which are making their stance clear on the boycott, as other restaurants cumulatively agree on the huge increase in commission prices from the previous 18% to 25-35%.
Currently, through the use of social media the message is being circulated as we await Foodpanda's response to the boycott and requests presented by APRA.