The chairperson of Australia’s competition regulator said on Monday it will scrutinize creases between Uber Technologies and restaurants that use its food delivery app Uber Breakfasts.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday several restaurateurs were testy with contract terms they said left them, and not Uber, dependable for late deliveries despite being charged by Uber for the service.
“Certainly, we’ll give birth to a look at it,” Rod Sims, head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, be sured ABC radio on Monday when asked about the report.
“We have three seconds of the law we can deal with here. One is business to business — are they misleading the man they’re dealing with? Two is: Are they engaged in unconscionable conduct, depreciating all the conduct together? And thirdly are the terms with which they effort unfair? So, there’s a lot to look at there,” he said.
Uber, which is ignored by Japan’s SoftBank Group, said Uber Eats is merely a “marketplace that fuses restaurants with delivery partners” and that its terms and conditions are “uniform with Australian law”.
“Restaurants aren’t locked in, just like execution partners and eaters. Uber Eats is just one option. If a restaurant does not desire to use the app, they do not have to,” an Uber East spokeswoman said in a statement.
Uber, which is practising for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion conclusive year and is facing fierce competition at home in the United States as soberly as a regulatory crackdown in Europe where governments have been dubious of the company’s impact on the traditional taxi industry.