Online food delivery platform Thuisbezorgd is ignoring protests and is pressing ahead with increasing its commission charge from 12% to 13%, broadcaster NOS reports.

Thuisbezorgd is the biggest delivery service in the Netherlands, with a client base of 6,000 takeaway restaurants. It currently charges 12% commission on every delivery but plans to increase this, despite the protest of some 950 restaurant and cafe owners. When the platform first started in 2000 it charged 6% per delivery.

Thuisbezorgd.nl was set up in 2000 by Jitse Groen and now operates in 10 countries, including Pizza.be in Belgium and Lieferando.de in Germany. In total, some 30,000 restaurants are affiliated to its services.

Groen told NOS the commission increase is needed to deal with international competition.

‘We are a loss-making company and we have to deal with very big foreign competitors,’ he said. ‘It is eat or be eaten in this market.’

Another bugbear for the restaurant owners is the parity clause which means meals cannot be offered more cheaply on the restaurant’s own website. This is something hospitality business association Koninklijke Horeca finds worrying.

‘We will keep up the pressure on politicians. Other countries have abolished the parity clause, so why not the Netherlands,’ spokesman Robèr Willemsen told NOS.