Working with restaurants to resolve issues, says Swiggy

New Delhi: Swiggy has sent a detailed set of suggestions to restaurant body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), in an attempt to resolve the long-standing dispute between the two sides on deep discounting, uneven commissions and data masking, Swiggy marketing VP TS Srivats said.
“We’re working with restaurant partners to drive more meals; not more discounts. We have proposed a lot of resolutions around all the points they have raised and are continuing to talk to find a middle ground; we are working in a very positive way with each other,” he said. He declined to mention details, citing confidentiality. Restaurants across the country had launched a 'logout' campaign on August 15 against dine-in food aggregators alleging “deep discounting, lack of transparency, data masking and abuse of dominant position by online delivery aggregators”.

However, with in the case of Swiggy which operates on the delivery model, the key contentions have been on deep discounting and private labels.

Srivats said none of its restaurant brands has logged out. “If they didn’t see value in co-creation, why would they continue to be with us? We don’t believe in running a discount-heavy business; we are focused on category creation and affordability is one part of it,” he said. An official at NRAI said on the condition of anonymity that the suggestions include restricting the heavy discounting and sharing confidential data.

NRAI had flagged eight issues pertaining to the online delivery space and has had a series of meetings with the aggregators. Anurag Katriar, NRAI president, said: “There has been significant progress in talks with Swiggy and we are working out structural resolutions.” He said the resolutions are being presently worked out between both are hence declined to comment on the details.