Merchants, platforms, and riders are
　　the "commission war" between the " Community of Destiny" catering industry and the takeaway platform

　　Recently, the catering company's complaint about Meituan's takeaway charging high extra commissions has attracted much attention. Under the impact of the epidemic, the dine-in business in the catering industry pressed the pause button, and many stores turned to takeaway "self-help", but the commission of the takeaway platform squeezed the already sluggish profits of the catering industry, making many companies face a crisis of survival. On April 18, Meituan Takeaway and the Guangdong Food and Beverage Service Industry Association issued a joint statement, proposing a number of assistance measures to help the food and beverage economy recover, and stated that "the warm spring of food and beverage is already on the road."

Takeaway commissions are controversial

　　There are two points of most concern in the US group commission dispute. One is that the commission rate charged by the takeaway platform is too high, and the other is that the takeaway platform requires catering merchants to do "exclusive management" for allegedly unfair competition.

　　On April 10, the Guangdong Provincial Catering Service Industry Association publicly released the "Guangdong Catering Industry To Meituan Takeout Joint Negotiation Letter", pointing directly to many issues such as the alleged monopoly, high commissions, and unfair competition of Meituan takeout, and called for the cancellation of Meituan takeout Monopoly clauses to reduce or exempt high commissions.

　　On April 13, Meituan responded that in 2019, more than 80% of Meituan's takeaway merchants' commissions are between 10% and 20%, and 80% of the commission income is used to pay the rider's salary, but many merchants report that their commissions are higher than 20%.

　　In fact, this is not the first time that a restaurant association has called on takeaway platforms to reduce commissions. Earlier, public statements issued by the catering and cooking associations in Shandong, Chongqing, Sichuan and other places also called on Meituan and other food delivery platforms to reduce commission fees.

　　In an interview with this newspaper, Dong Yizhi, a lawyer from Shanghai Zhengce Law Firm, said that how to charge commissions for takeaway platforms is a market behavior, and there is no fixed standard; while monopoly operation is actually more difficult to determine. On the one hand, the determination of monopoly lacks relevant precedents On the other hand, Meituan ’s market share and voice in the takeaway market still need to be discussed.

　　Liu Jinrui, a researcher at the Food Safety and Rule of Law Research Center of the Chinese Law Society, has previously stated that signing the agreement is a commercial negotiation process. For merchants who exclusively enter the Meituan delivery platform, the platform will often give preferential treatments such as "lower commissions" and "more traffic". From this point of view, the platform pays the price in order to obtain the "exclusive authorization". Judging from the current situation, the so-called "exclusive terms" in the take-out area should still be within the scope of normal market competition.

Catering companies waiting to recover

　　From Xibei, Baheli and other public “seek help” to many restaurants in Meizhou Dongpo and other places to sell vegetables, from the helpless price increase of Haidilao to the century-old store Tao Taoju and other emergency online delivery services, during the epidemic prevention period, the catering industry The impact was not small.

　　The socio-economic development status of the first quarter of this year released by the National Bureau of Statistics recently shows that from January to March 2020, the national catering revenue was 602.6 billion yuan, a significant decrease of 44.3% year-on-year. Among them, in March, the national catering revenue was 183.2 billion yuan, a significant decrease of 46.8% year-on-year.

　　According to the China Culinary Association, although the catering industry is actively resuming production in response to the national call, it continues to suffer losses. On the one hand, consumer confidence in consumption is low, income is reduced, and consumption is more restrained; on the other hand, some support policies have been delayed. As a result, the catering industry still faces great difficulties in resuming production and production, mainly as follows: chain and backbone catering It is difficult for enterprises to enjoy the assistance policy, and the resumption of production and production of enterprises is generally affected by the rent, the commission of the takeaway platform is too high, and the enterprises are in short supply. In addition, due to the impact of the epidemic, the price of raw materials has risen too fast, but the price adjustment of catering companies is limited.

　　Dong Yizhi said that the US delegation disputes intensified the contradictions during the epidemic prevention. The fundamental reason is that the catering industry as a whole is facing difficulties. The most important thing is the rising cost of the catering industry, including rents, materials, labor and other hard costs. Space.

　　Experts in the industry believe that in addition to reducing commissions, the core of the recovery of catering companies is to resume operations and increase business volume, and increase overall income to cover fixed costs such as rent and manpower.

Holding a group to keep warm for a win-win situation

　　Industry insiders said that merchants, riders, and platforms have always been a community of fate that depends on each other. When merchant orders drop sharply, platform revenue will fall to the bottom, and riders will also face survival challenges.

　　In the joint statement issued by Meituan on 18 April and the Guangdong Provincial Catering Service Industry Association, the two parties finally reached a stage agreement on the issue of commission. Meituan will provide a fair and orderly market environment and increase support for takeaway commissions. Industry recovery. Specific measures include Meituan ’s respect for catering merchants ’independent choice of various online platforms. Meituan will increase the commission rebate rate for high-quality catering takeout merchants in Guangdong to 3% -6% and expand coverage.

　　The commission dispute is not only a dispute between the catering industry and the takeaway platform, but also a dialogue and negotiation, so that the takeaway platform understands the actual difficulties and demands of the merchants and the catering industry association. Experts believe that since the two sides are a mutually beneficial community of interests, it is the way to cope with each other to overcome difficulties.

       Reporter: Leaf