Zomato Delists Multiple Fraudulent Single-Dish Restaurants

SUMMARY

Zomato said that many of these “fraudulent” single-dish restaurants were able to “game” its checks by using generic food names such as “Naughty strawberry” and “Merry Berry”

The company said it has further strengthened its fraud checks to proactively identify such cases to avoid similar incidents in the future

This comes days after an X user flagged multiple “fake restaurants” offering just one dish at high prices with “nonexistent addresses” in Chandigarh

Days after users flagged multiple single-dish restaurants listed on Zomato, the foodtech major has cracked the whip and delisted multiple “potentially fraudulent” eateries.

“We have identified all such restaurants that were potentially fraudulent and have delisted them from our platform. To solve this more comprehensively, we have also investigated all other restaurants which have a very limited menu on Zomato and might have listed prohibited items or worked around a way to list prohibited items,” said Zomato in a post on X.

The company said that many of these restaurants were able to “game” Zomato’s checks by using generic food names such as “Naughty strawberry”, “Merry Berry”, among others. .

Zomato added that it has further strengthened its fraud checks to proactively identify such cases to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Reiterating its policy, the foodtech major said that all restaurants listed on its platform mandatorily require an FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) licence. It said that the company “actively” blocks items such as alcohol, cigarettes, cigars, vapes from being listed on its platform.

This comes days after an X user flagged multiple restaurants offering just one dish at high prices with “nonexistent addresses” in Chandigarh. Tagging local Police, the user said, “Something really shady is cooking on @zomato.”

The X user claimed that he tried ordering from one of the said restaurants but received no delivery. “I tried placing an order but it got automatically cancelled after sometime and the restaurant is now showing as closed,” he wrote.

It is pertinent to mention that Zomato is the leading player in the food delivery market. Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal said in a recent report that Zomato extended its lead over recently listed Swiggy in the food delivery segment with a 58% market share. The brokerage added that Swiggy had a 42% share in the space.

Meanwhile, Zomato-owned quick commerce major Blinkit continues to dominate the quick “10 minute” delivery segment with a 46% market share, followed by Zepto with 29% and Swiggy Instamart with 25% share.