SAN FRANCISCO—The Farmer’s Wife, a restaurant in the Bay Area, and Antonia’s Restaurant in North Carolina filed a lawsuit against Grubhub for listing the names of their restaurants without their permission.
Kendra Kolling, of the Farmer’s Wife, could not be reached for comment. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she said, “It’s led to very bad exchanges with customers who are, in the end, blaming me because I’m listed on Grubhub.”
The Farmer’s Wife and Antonia’s Restaurant believe Grubhub’s actions have given their restaurants a bad name for not fulfilling their orders.
The lawsuit argues that Grubhub saw it was losing market shares to its competitors, so they use the names of popular restaurants, like the Farmer’s Wife, to gain more money.
According to the complaint, it is all at the expense of the restaurants because consumers think they are “getting a direct line into the kitchen.” The mix-up cause issues with clients who do not know that Grubhub lacks permission from the restaurants to use their services.
The lawsuit states that restaurants have good reasons to prefer not to partner with Grubhub. It stated that they do not need the extra orders. The restaurants are concerned about losing control of their customer service. Once they agree to let Grubhub take their orders to deliver, they could loose a certain amount of control over the quality of the food, the lawsuit said.
Due to a pending litigation, Grubhub has declined to comment.
