The Baltimore City Council will consider a bill to halve the fees that third-party delivery services such as GrubHub can charge restaurants.
The announcement Wednesday came less than a week after Mayor Brandon Scott closed indoor and outdoor dining operations amid growing COVID-19 rates.
Councilman Eric Costello, who represents Central Baltimore, said at a press conference that he would introduce the legislation, aimed at bolstering Baltimore employers’ bottom lines, at the council’s next meeting Jan. 11. His bill has the support of fellow Democrats Scott and Council President Nick Mosby.
GrubHub and other delivery companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash typically charge restaurants about a third of an order’s cost to deliver that order. The bill would cap the service fees the companies charge restaurants at 15% of the order cost and prevent delivery service providers from passing higher fees on to customers and gig workers.
“These guest workers that deliver food to us, they are residents of Baltimore City,” Costello said “We need to make sure that they are taken care of.”
Scott’s ban on eat-in dining received both rancor and support from restaurant owners across the city.
While several restaurateurs praised Scott at a news conference last week, saying his decision protected the health of their workers and customers alike, former Democratic mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah assembled more than two dozen restaurant owners to decry Scott’s decision, calling it abrupt and catastrophic.
“The decisions that I made last week to restrict funding and put further restrictions on Baltimore City were not made lightly,” Scott said Wednesday, adding that his actions were based on the guidance of public health experts from across the city, including Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.
Scott said the legislation is “just the beginning of how we can get to work together through this pandemic and beyond to make sure that our small businesses in Baltimore are the focus.”
Mosby said he and the council stood behind Scott’s decision.
“And now, as the legislative body for the city of Baltimore, it's our job to help fix the problems of the city,” he said. “This is something that not only protects our restaurants, but also protects the gig employees and creates provisions to protect our consumers as we continue with this pandemic.”
Costello said Mosby will allow the bill to bypass several procedural hurdles so it can arrive on the mayor’s desk as early as Jan. 25. Scott said he would sign the bill as soon as it hits his desk; it would go into effect immediately after being signed.
Under the bill, the cap would expire 90 days after Gov. Larry Hogan lifts a state of emergency he ordered in the spring in response to the pandemic.
Tony Randall, owner of downtown’s Next Phaze Cafe, called restaurants’ increased reliance on delivery services “a whole new way of life.”
“I think this legislation will not only help improve our bottom line, but help us keep our staff employed,” Randall said. “And it'll be something we can pass on to the consumers.”
Michele Blackwell, a spokeswoman for Uber, said the company helps drive demand for independent local restaurants.
“Regulating the commissions that fund our marketplace forces us to radically alter the way we do business and ultimately hurt those that we’re trying to help the most: customers, small businesses and delivery people,” she said.
