Warning: there’s a food fight brewing!

There’s a food fight brewing, but not the type where you hurl whipped cream across the table at your siblings.

US food delivery service Door Dash has entered Australia with a bang in the last month, and the food fight between it, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Menulog is set to explode.

Door Dash is a major player in the USA, with 300,000 food providers using the delivery service to serve more customers.

However, there’s a pretty tricky catch that should be very concerning for Australian businesses: Door Dash say their platform is opt-out, rather than opt-in. That means every restaurant is subscribed, whether they choose to be or not, unless they opt-out.

There’s been an example of a Camberwell business where a Door Dash driver (known as a Dasher) turned up to collect a delivery, but the business didn’t even know it was subscribed to the platform, let alone required to process an order.

This rings all sorts of alarm bells for me. The idea firstly that a business could be offering a service that it isn’t aware of is frightening. Secondly, the idea that a multinational business could be using the brands of other smaller businesses without their knowledge is downright unacceptable.

Of course, it could just be a launch publicity stunt, but with 2 million Aussies over the age of 14 using a food delivery service on average once every 6 weeks, the competition is set to be fierce and the food fight is just beginning.