Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Monday that he has signed emergency regulation 2020-20 that will limit the amount of service fees that can be collected by third-party delivery services like DoorDash, Uber East, GrubHub and more. The regulation will cap all fees at 15% of the order price. Previously, restaurants were paying up to 40% of the ticket price to these delivery services. Mayor Frey says that this is an important move to try to keep local restaurants afloat during the pandemic.
“Our restaurants have stepped up to continue serving their communities while safeguarding the health of their employees and customers. We need to provide every ounce of available support to them. Our restaurants are cultural institutions throughout Minneapolis, and this is urgently needed relief at a critical time.”
Minneapolis restaurant owners say this is an important regulation to them as margins in the restaurant industry are already low and these fees bite into them even more.
“As we head into the holiday break of a challenging year, we’re happy to see our Twin Cities leadership pulling together to support the employees who make our local restaurant industry incredible,” said Wendy Puckett, Owner of Wendy’s House of SOUL in Minneapolis. “There are commonsense steps that local government can take to help provide relief and this is an excellent example of exactly that.”
Brent Frederick, CEO of Jester Concepts, says that innovation that the pandemic has forced has come at a cost and that this regulation should help keep their customers first.
“Our restaurants have stepped forward to serve community in unprecedented ways. We’ve worked hard to innovate and prioritize the public health of our staff and customers. This new measure will help us compete while continuing to put the public health of our communities first.”
Minneapolis is the first city in Minnesota to adopt such a regulation. The regulation goes into effect on Wednesday.