With an aim to bring parity between the online food aggregators and offline restaurants, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on July 4 deliberated upon a wide range of issues such as discounts, exclusive tie-ups and inventory ownership in terms of dark kitchens being offered by firms such as Swiggy and Zomato, according to sources privy to the development.

The meeting, which was chaired by Ramesh Abhishek, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, lasted for one-and-a-half hours, and had in attendance representatives of Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and UberEats, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), South India Hotels and Restaurant Association and Hotels and Restaurants Association Western India.

The offline restaurant bodies alleged that the aggregators were indulging in predatory practices and demanded that excessive and predatory prices discounts needed to be regulated and restaurants should not be forced to participate in them for marketplace presence.

They also demanded that the customer data which is generated on the online platforms should be shared with the restaurants which supplies the food.

Conventionally, this data is kept by the aggregators and the restaurants never gets to know details like which food item is popularly being ordered from which area or at what time. Such details will go a great length in improving the services and reducing cost of production and wastage by the restaurant owners.

While none of the online food aggregators mentioned above commented on this specific issue, an industry source said that it is likely that they will deny this request because if handled over the restaurants, the data can be misused. He also stressed upon the fact that this is not even an industry practice.

It was also demanded that delivery services cannot be bundled with marketplace services. In case if a restaurant just wants to have an online presence and wants to deliver the food by itself, it should have complete freedom to do that.

However, many in the industry believe that if they allow restaurants to deliver food themselves, it will impact the customer experience and in turn their businesses.

Even the issue of owning the inventory in terms of dark kitchens was debated. It points towards the ownership of private label brands. If agreed by the government, it has be a death knell for companies such as Swiggy which owns multiple private label brands like The Bowl Company and Homely.

In a meeting held on June 24, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal made it loud and clear that the ministry would not tolerate any violation of Press Note 2 which barred e-tailers from offering discounts or influencing prices of the items sold in any form or manner. He asked the etailers to follow the regulation in letter and spirit.

However, for long it is being debated whether food aggregators fall under the foreign direct investment rules which is meant for the online commerce space.

According to sources present in the meeting, the government listened to both the sides and is expected to revert. More meetings are likely to be organised to deliberate on this further.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported that DPIIT will be discussing the issue of predatory pricing and private label brands

Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda, UberEats did not immediately respond to email queries.

Moneycontrol recently reported that online delivery firms were inflating the original price of food items from outlets across the country in order to fill their coffers.

The price inflation can range from Rs 5 to 50, or even more, depending on the size of the outlet.

According to people aware of the development, such arrangements are done in cases where the restaurant owners decline to pay hefty commission rates to the delivery companies, which can vary between 15 to 35 percent of the cost of the item.

The food aggregators then come up with the solution of inflated pricing, the differential of which goes into their pockets.

Interestingly, on one hand, the prices are inflated. At the same time, additional discounts are added to it to attract customers.

"Right from its inception, Swiggy has been committed to working closely with the government and other stakeholders and has always believed in being at the forefront of building a sustainable food delivery ecosystem. The discussion today with DPIIT brought all stakeholders on the same platform to address and clarify issues and work towards the overall growth of the industry. The meeting was also attended by other government agencies such as MoRTH and FSSAI with everyone appreciating the phenomenal growth enabled by food aggregators using technology-oriented solutions," a Swiggy spokesperson said.