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Baton Rouge 'turns off' Waitr for a week

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Posted at 10:44 AM, Jul 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-17 11:55:10-04

Some customers and restaurants in Baton Rouge are boycotting Waitr this week over new controversial terms for restaurants.

The boycott was inspired by a similar one-day blackout in Lafayette.

The Lafayette boycott took place Sunday, but many restaurants closed unexpectedly because of Tropical Storm Barry making the boycott not as successful as participants hoped.

In the new terms, Waitr will take a higher commission for restaurants that have a smaller amount of sales and a lower commission for those that have a larger volume.

Waitr issued a statement in response to the boycott events happening in Lafayette and Baton Rouge.

"From our founding, our mission has been to bring the value of food delivery to our restaurant partners with the lowest fees in the industry," the statement said. "As we move to a performance based rate model on August 1, we continue to provide restaurants with the lowest fees in the delivery industry, with those with the highest order volume receiving a rate half that of our national competitors, and those with lower volume still lower than our competition. The success of our restaurant partners is our first priority, and we will work closely with our partners to optimize their delivery success in order drive rates to the lower end of the scale across the board."

Read more from The Advocate.