Restaurants have alleged that food aggregators are "cannibalising" dining because of deep discounting, and that aggregators' search algorithms are biased towards their own cloud kitchens and private labels. These allegations were in the findings of the Competition Commission of India's e-commerce market survey (see below), which was made public on August 30. The study looked into food, retail (goods), and hotel sectors. The market study found that 28% of (respondent) restaurants' revenue came via online platforms, 78% of the restaurants have an online presence, with about 69% going online between 2016-18. In the food sector, CCI found that restaurants had enlisted themselves on at least three different food aggregators. According to Sayanti Chakrabarti, joint director in the CCI's economics division, the survey will have "a bearing on competition, level playing fields in the market or on the ability of markets to compete on merit". CCI had formally announced its e-commerce market study in June, a development we made public in May. Apart from the questionnaire sent to stakeholders, focus group discussions were conducted with each stakeholder group, and was followed by meetings between CCI and surveyors — which included online and offline retailers, manufacturers, online marketplace platforms, hotels, restaurants and payments systems — over the last three months. Written submissions made by the industry to the government and CCI have also been included in the survey, said Chakarbarti. CCI declined to comment on the exact number of participants in the survey. These are the main findings from the food sector in the CCI's survey:…
