Zomato, restaurant ordered to pay ₹3,000 to B'luru man for cancelling his order

A consumer court in Bengaluru ordered the food aggregator app Zomato and a restaurant in the city to pay Rs 3000 as compensation to a customer after a dinner order he placed on the app got cancelled arbitrarily.

The customer from Malleswaram, Abhishek MR, ordered an Amritsar Chole Thali from the Box8 Desi Meals restaurant in Rajajinagar through Zomato in April last year. The order was worth Rs 256. Since he did not get any delivery update even after one hour, Abhishek contacted the customer executives of Zomato and he was informed that the dinner will not be delivered.

Abhishek filed a complaint with the Bangalore Urban 2nd additional district consumer disputes redressal commission in Shantinagar against the Managing Director and the regional manager of the company in Bengaluru manager as well as against the proprietor of Box8 Desi Meals. He sought Rs 1 lakh in compensation.

However, Zomato refuted the claims by the customer and argued that there was no deficiency in service from their part and said they had refunded the money and offered to grant him Rs 1,000 through the app wallet as a goodwill gesture. The food-tech company claimed that they are just a "facilitator" and the responsibility to fulfil the order lies with the restaurant.

But the court noted that Zomato too has the responsibility for the deficiency. The consumer forum directed the Bengaluru manager of Zomato and the Box8 Desi Meals restaurant to pay the customer a compensation of Rs 2,000 for service deficiency and Rs 1,000 towards his court expenses. The commission also said that the entire amount should be paid within 30 days of the order.