News

Grubhub CEO counters claims company bought restaurant domain names without permission

July 3, 2019

The CEO of third-party delivery platform, Grubhub, yesterday countered claims first published in a New Food Economy story that it was — without authorization — purchasing restaurant web domain names for its own benefit. 

In fact, Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney said in an email to Grubhub employees that was obtained by the Los Angeles Times that the purchases — which he said the company ended last year — were all authorized in its contracts with restaurants, in which they agree to web domain acquisitions and and website creation promoting their businesses. 

The New Food Economy story claimed Grubhub and its Seamless unit had registered more than 23,000 domains in smaller brands' restaurant names without the consent of the owners of those brands. 

"We do not set up websites without the permission of a restaurant," Maloney wrote in the email to employees that The Times obtained. "We had a very clear provision in every one of our restaurant contracts saying we would provide this service to bring them more orders."

Grubhub's restaurant website creation ended last year, according to Maloney's email, which also said the company reduced charges for orders received on those sites over those made through its app. He said restaurants who wanted ownership of those Grubhub-created sites could do so upon request.

According to the newspaper's review of the Grubhub contract's terms of service, restaurant owners sign off on Grubhub creating and operating micro-sites and obtaining URLs for them on the restaurant's behalf. Grubhub said this "opt-out" line was included to allow restaurant operators to reject or re-negotiate around the provision.