Foodora is pulling out of Australia because it owes $28.3 million in debt — not to mention its two lawsuits and unpaid taxes.

Nearly all of it, however, was for "associated loans" (totalling $28 million), which it needs to repay to its German parent company Delivery Hero.

Screenshot of Foodora app, confirming its brand is still available worldwide (taken on August 25, 2018). ( Foodora )

The food delivery company is unlikely to pay all its Australian liabilities, including the wages of delivery riders.

It was also revealed, at the first creditors' meeting on Thursday, that Foodora owes more than $558,000 in payroll tax to Revenue NSW.

The Australian Taxation Office is also chasing Foodora for unpaid superannuation, penalties and interest — but has not finished calculating how much it is owed yet.

Foodora went into administration two weeks ago — despite earlier claims it was "solvent" — amid accusations that it systematically exploits and underpays its delivery riders.

"Here we have Delivery Hero making a claim of over $28 million on its own company while it has been ripping off taxpayers and riders with its exploitative business model," said Transport Workers Union's national secretary Tony Sheldon.

"There is something fundamentally broken about a system which facilitates this kind of behaviour."

Who is Delivery Hero?

Despite its legal problems, Foodora is still trading in several countries including Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

But it also recently withdrew from the Netherlands, France and Italy earlier in August.

Meanwhile, its German parent, Delivery Hero, continues to grow its business across 40 countries around the world — and is worth 9.18 billion euro ($14.7 billion).

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The German company posted a promotional video one week ago, boasting of its "success story" — several weeks after its subsidiary Foodora decided to pull out of Australia.

It was founded in 2008 by Niklas Östberg who, according to the video, had the "heroic idea" of starting an online food ordering service in Sweden.

Delivery Hero had signed up 50,000 restaurants around the globe by 2013 and, within a year, became Europe's "largest start-up investment" by raising $US350 million.

Three years ago, the German company took over Foodora and "pioneered [its] own delivery operations".

The parent company's revenue surged 60 per cent after it listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange last year.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Delivery Hero — which now has 17,000 employees, 200,000 restaurants, and accepted 184 million orders in the first half of 2018.

Earlier this month, Delivery Hero outlined, in a statement, its plan to expand:

"Delivery Hero will opportunistically deploy up to 80 million euro for additional investments in the second half of 2018 to take advantage of positive business performance and increasing food delivery market."

Very few options for the workers

Foodora's administrator, Worrells, has told the ABC that the delivery riders are "unsecured creditors".

Foodora's liabilities, totalling $28.3m, far outweighs its $566,671 in assets, according to Worrells' creditors report. ( Worrells )

This means they are among the "last in line" to be paid any outstanding wages or debts.

In normal circumstances, when a company goes out of business, its employees can claim taxpayer-funded compensation from the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG).

But Foodora, along with its competitors, hires the riders as independent contractors, not employees.

These companies require the riders to sign contracts stating they are, essentially, operating their own businesses and are "their own boss".

Foodora's riders, therefore, cannot claim compensation from the FEG, a spokesperson from the Department of Jobs and Small Business told the ABC.

Most of the delivery riders that the ABC has spoken to (across Foodora, Uber Eats, and Deliveroo) are international students.

Even if they are ultimately considered "employees" under the law, they face another hurdle. They can only claim FEG compensation if they are permanent residents or Australian citizens.