Georgia Senate committee studies whether to regulate food delivery apps

ATLANTA - When it comes to oversight, the difference between ordering food directly from a restaurant versus a third-party app is night and day.

The Georgia Department of Public Health inspects food service establishments and can shut them down for failure to adhere to state regulations, but once an outside delivery driver picks up an order their oversight ends.

"Iowa has just passed a law which regulates the third-party delivery application companies and part of that law includes regulating the holding temperatures, making sure the containers are sealed. They also put a regulation on who can ride in the car with them. They don't need to have dogs, kids, anything like that," explained DPH State Environmental Health Director Galen Baxter.

Baxter's testimony was part of the second hearing by the Senate Food App Delivery Study Committee. The group of state lawmakers is examining whether Georgia should adopt regulations over apps like DoorDash, Uber East and Grubhub. 

"It's really to sort of look at whether there's an additional balance that we need to put between restaurants and third-party delivery apps because restaurants are highly regulated related to food safety," explained state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, the chair of the study committee. "There's a lot of customer transparency on what's happening and customers can feel assured that the Department of Public Health food safety and things of that nature and when you have delivery, really all of that just kind of evaporates."

Restaurants have also complained to lawmakers that some of the apps do not contract with them nor get their permission to sell their food.

"We have issues where people will contact a third-party delivery [app] and say, 'I did not give you permission to put me on your platform. Get me off.' They take them off and then three weeks later, it comes back again," said Karen Bremer with the Georgia Restaurant Association.

Some in the industry have also expressed concern about the prices the apps charge consumers and how much commission they take—hurting restaurants' bottom lines.

A representative from DoorDash told the study committee that they contract with restaurants and owners can choose what level of service—and commission—they want. The tiers range from just a 3% credit card processing fee for restaurants who only use DoorDash's online ordering platform to 15%, 25% or 30% commission depending on the delivery radius and other options.

Sen. Parent said she would like consumers to have a better idea of where their money goes when they use a third-party service. 

"I've always viewed myself more as a customer of the restaurant and you do use the app for convenience and I certainly know that they add a lot of value, you know, having these convenient apps, but my loyalty as a consumer is where I decided to order food from," said Sen. Parent.

The study committee will now draft a report and possibly recommend legislation. They will meet one final time Nov. 1 to adopt that report ahead of the 2023 legislative session.