About Restaurant Fee Hub
Restaurant Fee Hub is an independent project of Big Deal Digital.
Nobody paid us to do this.
As consumers, we’ve been concerned by the transformation of many small, independent restaurants into delivery hubs — not places where people come to gather. We’ve also noticed the price increases. You probably have, too.
As marketing and technology professionals, we’re always evaluating markets and methods, so we started digging into the details.
What we learned shocked us. Many independent restaurants are extremely reliant on third-party delivery apps and their marketplaces. But those big app companies take so much money from restaurants, many smaller operations will probably not be in business long term. Almost no business can give away 20% to 40% of its revenue and still make money. Meanwhile, the big delivery apps make billions every year. What do they care if a bunch of your local favorites have to shut their doors?
The tactics of these big apps are not just questionable, many times they’re illegal. The apps trick consumers by creating fake websites and phone numbers, they pile on mystery fees that nobody understand, they require restaurants to inflate their prices, and many of their promotions cause restaurants to lose money on their orders.
We suspect most consumers have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes. We didn’t know much about the issue until we read a few dozen news stories and studies (there are more than 60 links on our research page, with more to come). Given the magnitude of this problem, we kept wondering, why are there no campaigns to educate consumers? We also saw no comprehensive resources aimed at helping restaurants out of the predatory app trap.
Then we saw that the Federal Trade Commission was seeking comments from people who have been negatively impacted by “deceptive” practices. That means everyone who feels like they have been misled or cheated by the apps — consumers, restaurants, delivery drivers — should tell the FTC about their experiences.
The deadline for FTC comments is May 18 — that is coming up FAST!
We thought maybe we could help by assembling a lot of what we’ve learned in a website. The first version of this site launched on May 10, 2026. Given the fast turn-around, it still needs a few visual improvements, but everything you need to know is here! We’ll be updating the site frequently, so please check back — or join our email list.