How is the gig economy going on in India? While platforms continue to make profit with their back-to-back product launches, burning investors monies, the key beneficiary is neither the restaurants nor the delivery agent who braves traffic and peanut compensation to get your stuff delivered. With delivery giants like Zomato and its rival Swiggy foraying into 10-minute food delivery with private branding; the restaurant owners feel cheated. Taking a stand against the monopoly in play, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has threatened legal action against the platforms. President of NRAI, Sagar Daryani, stated that the aggregators have always given verbal assurances that they will not resort to private labeling, and hence the likes of Blinkit Bistro and Swiggy Cafe/Snacc are “breach of trust.” It also cannibalizes the restaurant businesses that rely on these platforms. The NRAI president also raised concern over platforms masking consumers and not enabling access to customer data. Per the NRAI, the the private labelling by platforms creates conflict of interest and an abuse of dominant position in the industry, which is valued at Rs 5.69 lakh crore. NRAI is “absolutely not okay’ with the move.

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