Canada’s Competition Bureau sues DoorDash over customer prices

DoorDash is being sued by the federal Competition Bureau, over what it calls 'deceptive' marketing and fees that mislead customers into paying more than they expect.

Canada’s Competition Bureau is suing food delivery company DoorDash, alleging it misled customers on some prices and offers, including discounts.

According to a release, the federal Competition Bureau says its investigation found that consumers ended up paying more than was advertised on the DoorDash website and mobile applications due to additional “mandatory fees at checkout.”

The bureau says this practice is commonly known as “drip pricing,” and calls it “deceptive” because the process lacks transparency.

In some cases, the bureau says the additional “fees” may be misclassified to customers as “taxes.”

“Parliament has made it clear that businesses must not engage in drip pricing by advertising unattainable prices and then adding mandatory fees,” commissioner of competition Matthew Boswell said in a statement.

“Our litigation against DoorDash is another example of our efforts to ensure consumers are not misled and can trust the prices they see online.”

In response to Reuters, DoorDash said it did not hide fees from consumers or mislead consumers and that the Competition Bureau was wrong.

“We believe that this … is an overly punitive attempt to make an example of an industry leader in local commerce,” it said in a statement.