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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 23, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Competition Commission of India Thursday rejected a complaint seeking probe against Eternal Ltd. for high platform fee, exploitative layered pricing structure, drip pricing mechanism, excessive commission recovery, indirect price inflation upon consumers, and abuse of dominant position in its online food delivery platform Zomato application, which resulted in large-scale unjust enrichment and consumer exploitation. The excessive price charged by Eternal in its food platform Zomato in comparison to the restaurant partners personal visit orders may not be considered as abusive as selling food items through online platforms includes other services like platform services, delivery services, said the antitrust body.

 

The food delivery platforms, being multi-sided in nature, charge platform fee from consumers to provide online food services, said the competition regulator. They charge delivery fee from consumers for delivering food items to them through third parties or their own delivery mechanism, it said. On other hand, they charge commission from restaurant partners for selling their food items through the platform, said the regulator. Since commission is paid by restaurants, they may shift it to consumers by adding it to the menu price of the food, said the regulator. 

 

A consumer who is not able to go to the restaurant to have food may avail services of online food platforms by paying additional charges including delivery charges and platform fee, said the commission. The business model of selling food items through restaurants and online food delivery services are different, it said, adding that the price of a food product varies in both the models. The complainant has chosen a sample of a single food item of low price of INR 100 to probe that Eternal was charging a higher price, which was 88% more than restaurant price, it said. If the price of the food item is high, the percentage difference in price would accordingly decline as the delivery charge is a fixed charge and it may vary depending on the distance, said the commission.  

 

As regards drip pricing, the commission said that it was a sales technique where a business displayed only part of a product's price at the beginning of the purchase process, then gradually reveals additional mandatory fees, which are platform fee, delivery fee, taxes, or surcharges as the customer progresses toward checkout. The final price is increased after adding additional charges in base price, said the commission. However, the additional charges are for additional services provided and consumers have the option to accept or reject the item till the last moment of placing the order, it said. Thus, drip pricing does not raise any competition issue, as such, it said.

 

The case has its genesis from Shri R. Suresh, the complainant, approaching the commission to probe Zomato. The complainant had placed a food order through the Zomato platform from Sree Ariya Bhavan in April. Though the base food value was INR 123.50, the complainant was compelled to pay INR 198 including INR 43 as delivery partner fee, INR 14.90 as platform fee and INR 16.60 as goods and services tax. 

 

Thereafter, the complainant personally visited the same restaurant and purchased the identical item directly for only INR 105 inclusive of GST. Upon enquiry, the restaurant management informed the complainant that approximately 33% commission is deducted by Zomato from restaurants, compelling restaurants to artificially inflate prices on the platform. The restaurants are also compelled to incur advertisement and promotional visibility expenses to maintain competitiveness on the platform, the complainant said.

 

Eternal is abusing its dominant position in the relevant market of online food delivery platform services in India by imposing unfair and discriminatory conditions upon consumers and restaurant partners, said the complainant. Eternal's conduct has caused appreciable adverse effect on competition and amounts to exploitative abuse of dominance through excessive commissions, unfair pricing practices and anticompetitive commercial arrangements, said the complainant.

 

Thursday, the shares of Eternal ended 1.0% higher at INR 287.10 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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