On Thursday, the New York City Council passed legislation making pandemic-era food delivery fee caps permanent, limiting the ability of delivery apps to share delivery costs with restaurants.
Chamber of Progress, a center-left tech industry association, testified in opposition to the bill during a City Council hearing in July, making the case that the delivery fee caps put the burden of paying for drivers, network management, and credit card fees on customers all while driving down demand for restaurant food. For more on the impact of delivery fees, read Chamber of Progress’s op-ed in the New York Daily News.

“The council thinks it’s helping restaurants, but it’s really raising food delivery costs for New Yorkers,” said Chamber of Progress CEO and Founder Adam Kovacevich. “And we know that when other cities have done this, higher delivery prices lead to fewer orders for restaurants and lower driver wages. It’s a lose-lose-lose situation.”

On a typical food order of $24, it costs an additional $13 to pay for drivers, management of driver networks, background checks, and credit card processing fees. In most areas that institute fee caps that exempt restaurants from paying their share of the cost, delivery apps have been forced to pass on the cost to consumers.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a new center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future. We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.
Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.