People buying food from an Uber Eats truck in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York in May last year. — Don Emmert/AFP
Uber Technologies Inc is in talks to buy food delivery rival Grubhub Inc just as cities are cracking down on delivery fees, limiting how much the companies will be able to profit from the pandemic delivery boom.
News of the discussions, reported by Bloomberg, came a day before New York is set to vote on restrictions that would bar companies like Grubhub and DoorDash Inc from charging restaurants delivery fees of more than 15%, and impose limits on fees for marketing and other services. Regulators in San Francisco and Seattle have already set such limits and cities including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles have mulled doing the same. Those regulations are meant to protect restaurants and consumers as they depend on food delivery services to get them through shelter-in-place orders.
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