Zomato, Swiggy directed to make data sharing call the user's prerogative

Dept of Consumer Affairs also asks e-commerce food majors to furnish proposal on improving consumer grievance redress mechanism within 15 days

The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed e-commerce food majors to furnish the current framework along with a proposal on improving the consumer grievance redress mechanism within 15 days. It has also asked food aggregator platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy to allow consumers the choice to share their contact information with restaurants, only if the consumers approve.

The direction was given during a meeting chaired by Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Rohit Kumar Singh with major e-commerce food business operators, to discuss pertinent issues that affect consumers in this sector.

When contacted, Zomato and the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) did not respond, while a Swiggy spokesperson on data sharing said: “Keeping in view user privacy, Swiggy does not share customer names and contact information. All other information related to food orders, and insights on demand and selection is shared with restaurant partners.”

The spokesperson added: “We welcome the initiative by the Department of Consumer Affairs to discuss the grievances by consumers with regard to online food ordering. We are encouraged by the discussion between the key stakeholders in the food ecosystem. As participants, we agreed that food manufacturers and restaurants will have to work together to holistically address different aspects of the grievances raised."

During the last 12 months, over 3,631 grievances have been registered on the National Consumer Helpline (1915) for Swiggy and 2,828 have been registered for Zomato. Both the companies are convergence partner on NCH.

E-commerce FBOs were directed by the Department to transparently show consumers the breakup of all charges included in the order amount such as delivery charges, packaging charges, taxes, surge pricing etc. Platforms must also show individual consumer reviews transparently and refrain from showing only the aggregation of reviews.

According to a statement by the Department, the e-commerce FBOs observed that prices of food items are decided by the restaurants and they have a grievance redressal mechanism in place which does have a scope for improvement considering the number and nature of grievances registered by consumers.