Deliveroo published a new set of rider terms this week. According to their email riders will all be asked to accept these shortly.

They include an interesting addition to the ‘Services’ riders will be asked to provide to Deliveroo (clause 2.1.3):

the capture (using a smartphone camera) of a requested image, such as a restaurant menu, while attending a Partner location, and submitting it by such means as Deliveroo may notify to you for validation (with an image being regarded as successfully validated if it reflects Deliveroo’s request and has minimum human readable quality.

It is unclear what exactly this means but it sounds like riders might soon be asked to send Deliveroo pictures of the menu when we collect some orders. Apparently they are planning to pay riders for this (clause 4.3):

In the case of an image capture in accordance with clause 2.1.3, you will be paid a fee plus VAT if applicable (an “Image Capture Fee”) upon successful validation by Deliveroo of the image in accordance with the requirements set out in that clause.

Why does Deliveroo want to know the menu prices?

Deliveroo has fought a long battle with battle with merchants over menu prices and mark-ups.

Deliveroo makes money from each order (£2.60 after paying the driver on average) so they want as many orders as possible. The lower the menu prices the more orders and therefore the better for Deliveroo.

However, merchants have to pay commission to Deliveroo, often as much as 30% of the order value. They often operate on fine margins and therefore generally increase their prices when selling on aggregators.

The result is that customers are having to pay more, compounded by additional service fees added by Deliveroo. If you exclude grocery orders Deliveroo has actually seen the number of restaurant orders fall in the past two years.

Deliveroo’s response has been to try to penalise merchants for marking up their prices. In November 2023 they launched the ‘Value Programme’ for merchants. Any merchant who marks up prices by too much risks being put at the bottom of the rankings or even kicked off the platform.

But to measure this Deliveroo of course needs to know what the menu prices are for dine-in or direct ordering customers. This seems to be where rider photo uploads come in.

Whose customer is it anyway?

At the heart of this dispute is the core question of whose customer are we talking about.

Deliveroo’s rider terms refer to ‘Deliveroo’s customers’ and calls restaurants and grocers ‘Partners’, but Deliveroo isn’t a food company; it is a marketplace.

Technically it is the merchant that is selling to the customer and then the merchant that is paying Deliveroo for the privilege (the commission) i.e. Deliveroo's customer is the merchant.

Here is the crucial part of Deliveroo's terms and conditions:

When you order from a Partner, you are buying the Items from one of our Partners and Deliveroo acts as an agent on behalf of that Partner to conclude your order from our Application and to manage your experience throughout the order process. In plain terms, this means it’s our Partners’ responsibility to complete your order, and we simply provide the platform that helps your order reach our Partner and we take payment from you on their behalf.

However, many merchants are beginning to question this. They don’t know who their customer is, they have no contact with them and now they are being told how they should set their prices.