Google Needs to Remove Third-party food ordering sites from the Google Business Listing

Google continues to allow third-party providers, such as Door Dash, UberEATS, and Grubhub, to add links to a restaurant’s Google Business Listing, costing the restaurant industry billions of dollars and doing great damage to the restaurant’s brand.

Google Business Listing is designed as a free listing provided by Google that allows businesses to provide valuable information to those searching specifically for that business. In a restaurant’s case, it often leads to the user ordering food from that restaurant. Today, most orders are placed online, so many restaurants now accept orders directly from their website. They want customers from the Google Business Listing to order directly from them, as it saves them money and reinforces their brand. However, because Google allows third-party providers to prominently list their links on the platform, such customers often order through a third party instead. This harms the restaurant in several ways. Besides the higher cost, the restaurant’s customers are now customers of another platform, and those data no longer belongs exclusively to the restaurant.

Google can correct this wrong by making it optional for restaurants to list other providers. Currently, it lists them automatically and makes their removal virtually impossible.

These third parties are worth billions of dollars, and this simple change would shift the balance of power significantly. We just need Congress to intervene. Google acts only when governments start to try to strip away its monopoly. This one act can help fix a wrong that has seriously damaged the restuarnat community.

REMOVE 3rd parties from the Order button