There are New Rules for 3rd Party Food Delivery Apps in Iowa

Iowa restaurants got a big win on Friday!

A new article from KCRG reports that last week on July 1st, a new law went into effect that puts restrictions on third party delivery services, such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub. The law says that these delivery services can no longer represent a restaurant with their logo or menu without having a contract, and if they don't abide by the rules, there will be a fine. The first offense will cost the service $1,000 and the third offense will cost them $10,000. In addition, the law also prohibits drivers from smoking/vaping and delivering food with kids or pets in the car with them. A February article from the Des Moines Register said that the proposed legislation came about after the pandemic caused a surge in food delivery.

So, why is this good news? According to the proposed Food Delivery Protection Act, 40% of restaurants have had a third party delivery service represent themselves as a partner of their restaurant without their permission, 92% want 3rd party delivery services to assume liability for food safety and driver behavior, and 88% would like rules prohibiting smoking, passengers, and animals in delivery vehicles. If something goes wrong between the time the food is picked up and the time it is delivered, restaurants are sometimes unnecessarily blamed for those mishaps, which can hurt their reputation. The owner of Bop's Pizza in Cedar Rapids told KCRG, "If it gets cold or damaged, my name is on the box. They’re going to think of me.”

You can read more about the new law that went into effect on Friday HERE.