The Competition Commission of India (CCI) disposed of a complaint of unfair business practices against Swiggy.
The ruling came on a complaint that alleged Swiggy charged unreasonable and unfair prices from its customers.
The informants had complained that Swiggy typically charges a commission on the total bill amount of the order, inclusive of GST, from partner restaurants.
They also claimed that the rates charged by Swiggy, through its website or app, are much higher than the rates offered by the restaurants in their outlets, over and above the delivery charges. The complaint claimed that customers were generally unaware of the rates charged by a particular restaurant in offline mode and thus, could not compare it with the rates displayed on Swiggy’s platform.
Swiggy submitted that it operates only as an intermediary and the prices displayed on the platform were directly uploaded by its partner restaurants. It said the decision on pricing solely rests with the partner restaurants and Swiggy had no direct or indirect role in influencing the prices on its platform.
The complainant mentioned that Swiggy was India’s largest food-delivery platform, to which Swiggy replied that it was not dominant in the relevant market.
Holding that allegations against Swiggy were not substantiated, the CCI said “it would be apposite for Swiggy to give sufficient disclosures on its platform that it is not involved in fixation of price of the products/menus of the restaurants on its platform, so as to allay misgivings, if any, in the minds of any stakeholders including the consumers.”
