The Bundeskartellamt has decided for discretionary reasons to terminate its proceeding against Yd. Yourdelivery GmbH, a Berlin-based platform operates under the name Lieferando providing online food ordering services, for the time being. The proceeding was initiated to examine a price parity clause in Lieferando's general terms and conditions with restaurants. Based on this clause the prices charged on the Lieferando platform must correspond to the prices charged through the restaurants' own distribution channels.
During the proceeding the Bundeskartellamt has carried out investigations among competitors and restaurant associations to be able to better assess the effect of the clause in view of Lieferando's paramount market position in Germany. Accordingly, restaurants are increasingly using alternative services which newly enter the market and sometimes they are using several delivery services in parallel. Therefore, the Authority does not have sufficient indications at this point to suggest that the clause represents a serious barrier to market entry by new platforms offering differentiated services.
Terminating the proceeding for discretionary reasons does not represent a statement on whether the price parity clause under review is permissible under competition law. The Bundeskartellamt will continue to monitor how consumer demand behavior and competitive processes evolve, particularly now that Uber Eats and Wolt have entered the market.
Furthermore, the Bundeskartellamt has taken a critical view of Lieferando's practice to set up restaurant websites (so-called “shadow websites”) to the extent that this practice causes consumers to use Lieferando's intermediary services unintentionally. However, the Authority has not found any substantial proof of a pull effect caused by the combination of a price parity clause and “shadow websites”, an effect the practice was feared to produce to the benefit of the market leader. This does not represent any statement as to the relevance of the clause under consumer protection law. In conclusion, the Bundeskartellamt wishes to point out that restaurants can refrain from having Lieferando set up their websites or object to this practice.
(Bundeskartellampt – 12.07.2023)
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