Guangdong Consumer Protection Commission speaks up, can't even order a cup of milk tea alone? The high minimum delivery price of takeout has sparked heated discussions on platforms | merchants | Guangdong

Qixi Eve

#Guangdong takeout orders without delivery can be reported # Rush to hot search

Comprehensive CCTV News

The Guangdong Consumer Council issued a notice stating that

Delivery merchants have excessively high minimum delivery prices and set a policy of "no delivery per order"

Suspected of inducing excessive ordering, can be reported!

Regulatory minimum delivery fees for takeout in multiple regions

On August 17th, the Guangdong Provincial Consumer Committee issued a notice stating that through investigations into food delivery platforms and businesses, it was found that there are still 87 businesses suspected of inducing excessive ordering due to high minimum delivery prices.

The Guangdong Provincial Consumer Council has clarified that takeout merchants are suspected of inducing excessive ordering due to high minimum delivery prices and the practice of "no delivery per order".

In response, the Guangdong Provincial Consumer Council reminds consumers that if they discover illegal food waste behavior on food delivery platforms or vendors, they should actively supervise and report it.

In addition, in other regions, some businesses have been ordered to make corrections due to setting a minimum delivery fee of 20 yuan for takeout.

In March of this year, law enforcement officers from the Market Supervision Bureau of Luqiao District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, discovered during an inspection of online catering stores that a certain steak restaurant's takeout webpage marked a minimum delivery price of 20 yuan, but the unit price of crispy deep-sea cod strips, New Orleans chicken wings and other products sold by the restaurant did not exceed 20 yuan. In this regard, the law enforcement officers of the bureau issued a notice of rectification to the merchants.

Xu Yue, a staff member of the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee, said, "We are also concerned that some management departments have requested that businesses that set a" 20 yuan minimum delivery price "for takeout carry out rectification. This regulation is conducive to consumers fully exercising their right to freely choose products and reducing unnecessary food and beverage waste.".

It is recommended that food delivery platforms and merchants take corresponding measures from the perspective of protecting consumer rights and opposing waste, such as lifting the threshold for minimum delivery prices and setting reasonable delivery fees, so that consumers can purchase goods on their own as needed

The minimum delivery price is too high, suspected of violating the law

@The official Weibo account of China Youth Daily once released a "questionnaire" to investigate the willingness of netizens to make purchases——

Many consumers have encountered the problem of having to order more to make up for the cost when ordering takeout, as the unit price did not meet the minimum delivery price standard:

I originally wanted to order two special cold dishes at a time-honored restaurant on a food delivery platform, but in order to make up for the restaurant's starting price of 150 yuan, I ended up ordering five dishes;

In a Liangpi store, the traditional Liangpi, together with the packing fee, totaled 19.8 yuan. In order to reach the starting and delivery standard of 20 yuan, it was necessary to buy sauce ingredients ranging from 3 yuan to 5 yuan recommended by the merchants;

If you want to drink milk tea, the starting price for milk tea beverage merchants is usually above 20 yuan. If the unit price of the desired beverage is less than 20 yuan, you can only purchase two or more drinks to successfully place an order

Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary General of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, introduced that the Anti Food Waste Law clearly emphasizes that catering service operators shall not induce or mislead consumers to order excessive amounts of food. If the minimum delivery price set by the merchant is too high, it is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of the Anti Food Waste Law.

How to define whether the minimum delivery price is too high? Chen Yinjiang believes that the determination should be based on the unit price of the food sold by the merchant. If the unit price of most of the sold food does not reach the minimum delivery price, or the minimum delivery price exceeds the selling price of most of the food in the store by more than twice or even more, then the merchant's minimum delivery price setting should be deemed unreasonable.

At the same time, if merchants set a minimum delivery price higher than the unit price of dine in meals, causing consumers to passively make unnecessary purchases based on the minimum delivery price, it is also suspected of violating relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, infringing on consumers' right to independent choice and fair trade.

Two departments issued a document: Reasonably setting the minimum delivery price

The high minimum delivery price cannot be solely attributed to the merchant

The owner of a light food restaurant surnamed Liu revealed, "Not all of the takeout sales paid by consumers belong to the merchants, but also include various aspects such as platform deductions, rider delivery fees, and red envelope deductions."

If consumers place too few orders or the total price is too low, the profit earned by the merchant may not be enough to cover various cost expenditures. There are too many small orders, which ultimately leads to a loss making situation.

Some merchants even bluntly state that setting a high minimum delivery price is to "block" some low-priced orders.

Chen Yinjiang pointed out that the interests of businesses should be considered, but the right of consumers to independently and reasonably order meals needs to be protected more. Delivery platforms should also further optimize their algorithms to balance the interests of the platform, merchants, and consumers.

In June of this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Effectively Preventing Food Takeout Waste by Leveraging the Leading and Driving Role of Online Catering Platforms", which pointed out that online catering platforms should scientifically set minimum delivery prices and discount promotion rules, and explore guiding merchants within the platform to set reasonable minimum delivery prices based on different business scales, food grades, and ordering distances. Optimize the single machine system for full discount and do not include staple foods in the scope of full discount display, to minimize food waste.

Pengpai News once commented that wasting a little food may not seem serious, but if many order takers have to waste it, it brings together a huge number. We should not only protect the right to order takeout alone, but also prevent wastage at our fingertips due to high delivery fees. Of course, we cannot let catering companies and takeout platforms "lose money and make a fuss".

Have you ever been troubled by making up for takeout?

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