By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City agreed to hold off on requiring food delivery companies to share customer data with restaurants, the subject of a recent lawsuit by DoorDash Inc. In a joint filing on Monday with the U.S. District Court inManhattan, the city said it will not enforce a new law requiringthe disclosures while the lawsuit is pending, and DoorDashwithdrew its request for an injunction to block enforcement.
DoorDash sued the city on Sept. 15, calling a requirement that food delivery app companies provide customers’ names, phone numbers, email addresses and delivery addresses to restaurants a “shocking and invasive intrusion of consumers’ privacy.”
The San Francisco-based company also said the law would let restaurants “free-ride” on data they would not demand from in-person diners.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, New York City has tried to help restaurants that had resisted food delivery app fees as high as 30%, but which became more dependent on delivery as dining rooms closed or limited capacity and people ate at home.
In a separate case, DoorDash and rivals Grubhub Inc and Uber Eats sued the city on Sept. 9 over a law capping fees that delivery companies charge restaurants.
They said that law has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
The case is DoorDash Inc v City of New York, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 21-07695.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Sara Merken; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
