FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Contact: comms@ncdoj.gov
919-538-2809
RALEIGH — Attorney General Jeff Jackson is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to crack down on deceptive food delivery fees that get tacked on to customers’ bills to squeeze more money out of them.
“People should know upfront how much they’ll pay for something, instead of getting to the checkout page to see surprise fees tacked on,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Many food delivery apps play this game. It’s not right, and I’m urging the FTC to take action against it.”
In April, the FTC announced it was seeking public input on whether a rule is needed to address deceptive food and grocery delivery fees. Attorney General Jackson and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general submitted a comment letter to the FTC applauding its efforts to address unfair fees in other industries and encouraging it to expand those efforts to food delivery services.
The attorneys general note that online food and grocery delivery services have become increasingly popular in recent years. For many, including older consumers and those with mobility issues, they’ve become essential.
However, these platforms have also become some of the worst offenders of drip pricing, or the practice of tacking on additional charges at the very end of a transaction. Customers often don’t know about the fees until they’ve spent time picking their items and go to check out. Even then, the platforms often don’t make the purpose of the fees clear. These bait-and-switch tactics make it difficult for consumers to compare prices across platforms.
Additionally, prices on food delivery platforms are often different than those offered directly through a restaurant or store. In some instances, restaurants will mark up their prices on delivery platforms to offset the fees the platforms charge them.
Prices can also vary between consumers because of a tactic called personalized pricing or surveillance pricing. This is when platforms use customer data to decide how much to charge them. This can result in customers being charged more than they otherwise would. For example, platforms could use this tactic to charge customers more for goods the company knows they need most.
The attorneys general encourage the FTC to update their rules against unfair and deceptive fees to apply to food delivery platforms. They’re also asking the FTC to add new rules that would require platforms to:
- Clearly display the total cost at each stage of the order process.
- Accurately describe the purpose of each fee and how it’s calculated.
- Disclose markups from in-store prices.
- Disclose any use of pricing technology in setting prices based on an individual’s data, any price the company has set using personalized pricing technology, and any variation between the price offered to a consumer and a fixed price, such as the cost offered in-store or to the general public.
The letter also notes that any rule the FTC enacts should protect states’ abilities to adopt more protections than those included in the rule.
Attorney General Jackson has previously fought to ensure fair prices for consumers in other industries. Earlier this month, he shut down a secret data exchange that raised prices on chicken, pork, and turkey. In April, he won a seven-week long trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster on all claims as part of a fight to bring down prices for consumers. Also in April, he sent a letter to the FTC urging the agency to ban hidden and surprise fees that drive up rent costs and urged the U.S. Department of Labor to help lower prescription drug costs by requiring more transparency from pharmacy benefit managers.
Attorney General Jackson is joined in sending the comment letter to the FTC by the attorneys general of New York, Tennessee, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
A copy of the letter is available here.
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