Google is being sued by a Florida restaurant group that alleges the tech company set up unauthorized pages to capture food orders instead of directing them to the restaurant’s own site.
Google is using “bait-and-switch” tactics to get customers to place takeout or pick-up orders through “new, unauthorized, and deceptively branded web pages,” according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Left Field Holdings, a restaurant company that Lime runs. Fresh Mexican Grill Franchises. Those pages prompt customers with big buttons to order from food delivery companies like GrubHub, DoorDash, or Seamless.
“Google has never bothered to get permission from the restaurants to sell their products online,” the lawsuit says. “Google has purposely designed its websites to appear to the user as if they are served, sponsored and approved by the restaurant, when they are not – a tactic no doubt used by Google to increase orders and clicks. .”
In a statement to Ars, Google disputed “the mischaracterizations of our product” and said it would defend itself against the lawsuit. “Our goal is to connect customers with restaurants where they want to order food and make it easier for them to do this via the ‘Order Online’ button,” spokesperson José Castañeda told Ars. “We provide merchants with tools to indicate whether they support online orders or have a preference for a specific provider, including their own ordering website. We do not receive compensation for orders or integrations with this feature.”
Google acquisition
The “Oder Online” button appears to be the result of a Google acquisition known as “The Ordering App,” a site originally marketed to restaurants. “The Order app is an online ordering platform, powered by Google, designed specifically for restaurants to help customers order seamlessly through the Google business profile,” says the product’s Salesforce page. While The Ordering App was initially set up to take a percentage of sales, Google opted out “to help support restaurants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
It’s not clear when the ordering app or the “Order Online” button changed course or if it ever did — there’s very little information about the acquisition or product that’s public — but the lawsuit alleges that Google at one point decided to market it to food delivery companies rather than restaurants.
Before the “Order Online” button appeared, Google search results pages for restaurant searches looked like many others: a list of organic results accompanied by text ads. In 2019, Google began rolling out the new button, which features prominently in what the company calls the business profile, a collection of information about a business that appears next to search results.
When users click the “Order Online” button, they are redirected to a page that in many cases contains great links to food delivery companies complete with their logos. The restaurant’s own site also gets a link, although it’s a small, generic “website” button. In some cases, Google provides an interface for building an order, complete with prices and descriptions of the menu items. Companies that have completed the “Order Online” setup with Google can also direct customers to their own online ordering services. However, because many restaurants’ ordering sites are operated by third parties, those links may not contain a restaurant’s name. In the case of Cambridge, Massachusetts, cafe Flour Bakery, for example, the option to order directly appears as “thelevelup.com”.
If restaurants haven’t completed the setup, Google seems to create a page anyway. It’s unclear how that happens, although it’s possible that a restaurant’s appearance in a delivery app is to blame. However, that is not always a sign of a business relationship between the restaurant and the delivery company. Many food delivery companies have been sued for adding restaurants without their consent.
“Google’s ‘Order Online’ button leads to an unauthorized online store — a store owned and operated by Google — where consumers can place orders for the restaurant’s products, all under the restaurant’s trade name,” it said. the lawsuit.”Google places the restaurant’s trade name prominently at the top of the page, above the restaurant’s address and menu, to give the user the clear impression that the storefront and products are authorized and sponsored by the restaurant, when they are not. the case is.”
Food delivery app costs
If the restaurant has a relationship with the delivery company, a fee will be charged. These fees can be so high — 15 to 30 percent in many cases — that the restaurant has no hope of making a profit from the order. “A restaurant’s motivation for partnering with a delivery person is almost never to make a profit on orders it has received from the delivery person,” the complaint reads. “The usual goal of a restaurant is to bring in new customers who can later place orders with the restaurant outside of the expensive platforms of the delivery providers.”
But, the lawsuit says, the way Google’s “Order Online” feature is designed limits restaurants’ chances of taking orders directly.
Given the number of restaurants in the US, Left Field Holdings’ attorneys are seeking class action, believing there are “tens of thousands” of potential plaintiffs. “Since launching its unauthorized Storefront, Google has hijacked millions of customers and orders,” the lawsuit alleges.
