Uber Technologies has taken legal action in the US state of California against DoorDash, alleging the latter of engaging in anticompetitive behaviour that results in increased expenses for restaurants and customers.
The lawsuit was filed in the state’s superior court on 14 February 2025, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
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It alleges that DoorDash uses tactics such as threatening restaurants with higher commission rates if they choose to work with competing services such as Uber Eats.
“DoorDash’s underhanded tactics have cost Uber millions of dollars in revenue and unlawfully restricted its ability to grow Uber Direct, the Uber Eats platform for first-party delivery,” Uber stated in the lawsuit.
In an emailed statement to Reuters, a DoorDash spokesperson said: “Uber’s case has no merit. Their claims are unfounded and based on their inability to offer merchants, consumers or couriers a quality alternative.”
The complaint, as reported by WSJ, claims that Uber previously offered direct delivery services to restaurants until DoorDash intervened.
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By GlobalDataThe lawsuit alleges that a major restaurant company abruptly cancelled its agreement with Uber to provide direct delivery services after DoorDash announced plans to increase commissions for handling the restaurant’s marketplace orders.
It also alleges that DoorDash had threatened to increase commission rates by 30% for each marketplace order at another restaurant, and warned that partnering with Uber would result in restaurants facing millions of dollars in additional DoorDash fees.
As a result, Uber claims to have lost millions of dollars in business.
The allegations come after DoorDash saw its total orders increase 19% year-on-year to 685 million and its marketplace gross order value grow 21% to $21.3bn in the fourth quarter of 2024.
During Q4 2024, Uber posted a 60% year-on-year surge in its Uber One membership programme, which added five million users during the most recent quarter, bringing total members to 30 million.
The legal battle comes as food online delivery companies face challenges in generating revenue after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2024, Just Eat Takeaway sold Grubhub for a fraction of its original purchase price.
