The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is likely to ask food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy to make changes to their order cancellation policy, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The regulator will also ask these aggregators to make appropriate changes to their software to ensure that customers are not levied steep cancellation charges along with ensuring quick refunds in case of cancelled orders, people cited above added.
The development comes at a time when CCPA is probing both Zomato and Swiggy for various costumer practices. Last year, CCPA initiated a suo-moto probe against Swiggy and Zomato for unfair costumer practices including refund issues and deficiencies in service.
Customers who want to cancel an order currently are hit with charges that are around 90% of the order cost. “Many times, there are inordinate delays due to service-related issues of the platforms like unable to find a delivery agent or delay in the delivery agent in reaching. The actual delivery time goes much higher than the ETA shown while placing the order,” said the person cited above.
“Customers should not be penalized for deficiencies of the platform. They (Swiggy and Zomato) need to change their cancellation policies,”.
Emails sent to Swiggy and Zomato remained unanswered.
CCPA initiated a probe against Zomato and Swiggy in October 2024 after it received a slew of consumer complaints. The National Consumer Helpline(NCH) received 10,590 consumer complaints against Swiggy of which nearly 4,000 were regarding deficiency in service provided and 912 complaints were regarding refund not provided. On the other hand, Zomato had 7,938 consumer complaints on NCH.
The food aggregators have been arguing that any cancellation in the orders leads to unpaid costs for the aggregators.
“If the order is cancelled while preparation of the food or after the food has been prepared, the aggregators still have to pay the restaurant. Hence allowing free cancellation policy is a difficult task in this area. But certainly, in cases where the orders are delayed beyond promised ETA customers should be entitled to full refunds,” said the second person cited above.
Quality Standards
A significant number of complaints received by the NCH pertain to delivering bad quality food. Experts say if the food delivered is below quality, customers should be given 100% refund and the restaurant which has prepared the food should be penalized. However, the food aggregators claim they are not responsible quality. “Whenever these platforms have been questioned about quality checks or price checks, the platforms have argued they are just aggregators and do not control the quality or price of the food.” second person added.
However, legal experts say these aggregators are also subject to quality standards as prescribed in the food safety regulations. If any poor or unhealthy food has been delivered to customer, the platforms are accountable too, legal experts added.
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