Thuisbezorgd hides costs and fakes discounts: consumer group

The food delivery platform Thuisbezorgd.nl hides compulsory charges and advertises fake discounts, the Dutch consumer association Consumentenbond said on Tuesday, calling on the company to stop and to compensate affected customers.

Mandatory costs should be clearly shown before a customer starts ordering, the association said, but Thuisbezorgd’s app and website do not reveal compulsory “service” charges – for items such as bags, plastic packaging and sauce – until part-way through or at the end of an order, adding an average of €2 to €4 to the bill.

The association also said the company broke rules on special offers. Under Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) rules, a struck-through sale price must be the lowest the seller charged in the previous 30 days. In one case, the association found Indian snacks that had previously cost €3.75 being offered “on sale” from €7.50 to €6.

“We have been in talks with Thuisbezorgd since March, but the platform is still confronting customers with hidden costs and fake discounts,” said Consumentenbond director Sandra Molenaar, noting the company has more than six million users in the Netherlands.

Because the practice has probably been going on for years, the association estimates the hidden costs run into the hundreds of millions of euros in total. A Thuisbezorgd spokesperson said the company did not recognise the association’s accusations.

The Consumentenbond said it had also found hidden costs at Uber Eats, which made changes in June, though no fake discounts. The findings are part of a wider campaign against hidden charges and misleading offers that also named Bol and Amazon last week.

The association can press companies to change but cannot impose penalties; that is a matter for the ACM, which has fined firms including Leen Bakker, G-Star and Jysk in the past.