Classify food aggregators as ecommerce platforms: Restaurants to DPIIT

NEW DELHI: India’s largest restaurants approached the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to classify food services aggregators as ecommerce marketplaces.

The restaurants raised the demand even as their talks, held on Tuesday, with food services aggregators including Zomato to resolve disputes over discounting, data sharing and commissions ended with no agreements.

The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) has met officials at the department, which comes under the ministry of commerce and industry, demanding that guidelines applicable to ecommerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart be extended to the food services aggregators as well, industry executives with knowledge of the matter said.