DENVER — Denver City Council appears to be fast-tracking a proposal to limit the fees charged to restaurants by third-party delivery companies, as a committee gave it unanimous backing on Tuesday before dispatching it to the council as a whole for a vote.
The ordinance from Councilwoman Kendra Black, which she first detailed on Friday, would limit the commissions charged to eateries by companies like Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) and DoorDash, which can reach 30% or higher of a total bill, to just 15%. It also would bar those companies from adding processing or service fees, would allow additional marketing fees to be charged only if restaurants opt into them and would require eateries to give their permission to have their menus posted on a site.
Black is pushing the proposal after months of work with the Colorado Restaurant Association and EatDenver, the metro area’s independent restaurant organization. It comes during a brutal time for the sector, as more than 50 restaurants within the city already have closed for good and one of every four jobs in the city that have been lost during the coronavirus-caused economic downturn has been in that industry, Black noted.
>>Watch the video above: How are restaurants faring six months since Colorado's first COVID case
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