Just Eat Takeaway increases European restaurant commissions

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Just Eat Takeaway.com, the biggest online meals ordering company in Europe, is increasing the commission it charges restaurants for its services by around one percentage point in most European markets, the company said on Monday.

“I can confirm that in response to rising inflation and higher operational costs, we are increasing our commission rates for the first time in five years in certain European markets,” a spokesperson said.

A notable exception is the British market, where Just Eat competes with Deliveroo and Uber’s Uber Eats.

Just Eat Takeaway’s shares, which are down more than 60% this year, closed 0.1% lower at 18.30 euros.

A spokesperson for the Dutch association for restaurants and hotels, KHN, said it had only received a handful of complaints from its members about Takeaway’s higher commissions, which come as restaurants are facing higher costs due to inflation, which ran at 8.1% in the euro zone in May.

When restaurants increase prices, commissions based on a percentage of order size rise proportionately.

“The KHN does see that due to the dominant position of platforms, leisure businesses are unable to move freely,” it said, citing a high level of dependence on platforms for sales.

A spokesperson for Uber Eats in Germany said the company was “not planning any change in the service fee for restaurants at the moment.”

A spokesperson for Deliveroo said the company could not immediately comment.

Germany’s Delivery Hero, which owns a majority stake in Barcelona-headquartered food delivery company Glovo, declined to say whether it had recently raised commissions in its markets.

“We are constantly looking at numerous actionable levers, including commissions, to further increase profitability,” it said in a written response to questions.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Nadine Schimroszik; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)