City Council to Consider Limiting Food Delivery Fees

Third-party food delivery service fees might be capped to alleviate financial pressure on local restaurants and eateries, depending on how the City Council votes on Tuesday.
If the council takes that action, Glendale would join numerous other cities in enforcing the fee restrictions on third-party companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which restaurants in California have been restricted to takeout or delivery orders. The measure is seen as providing relief to local restaurants, as such establishments’ infamously thin profit margins are largely being exacerbated by a downturn in business and record price increases for groceries.
Service fees charged by these delivery companies — Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates being the most popular — often range from 15-30% of the menu price.
According to a city staff report, a survey of 59 of Glendale’s eateries indicated 48 of them, or 81.36%, showed support for a delivery fee cap; around 55% of the respondents supported a cap of 10% of the order and 24% of the respondents suggested 15%. The Los Angeles City Council is presently considering a 15% cap, while the Santa Monica City Council has already implemented that cap. (Santa Monica has additionally imposed a 5% cap on all other possible fees from these apps.)
The City Council also plans to revisit its moratorium on evictions for commercial tenants, which it initially considered extending and more thoroughly defining through June 30 at its May 12 meeting, but opted to extend only through June 2 after reaching a late-night impasse on the issue; the one condition agreed to was to exclude publicly traded companies from the protection.
Based on the staff report, the City Council appears it will compare plans enacted by Burbank, Culver City, L.A. and Los Angeles County on Tuesday. At prior meetings, council members wondered whether the eviction moratorium should include tenants that are multinational companies, for example, or whether employee count should be a limiting factor.
Officials also would have to determine a back-rent repayment plan and period for when the moratorium eventually sunsets. The council this month approved a repayment plan for residential tenants that spreads quarterly payments of their back rent through a 12-month period, with the clock starting on July 1 unless extended again.
Additionally, the council also will decide whether to further extend its face-covering requirement, which includes all time out in public and not just while inside businesses. Glendale’s requirement is more comprehensive than most similar rules within L.A. County.
The council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, and will broadcast its meeting live. Because of pandemic restrictions, residents cannot attend in person but are invited to watch and call in to comment. The agenda and its reports can be viewed at glendaleca.gov.