{"id":189853,"date":"2026-04-08T18:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189853\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:27:07","slug":"mamdani-is-cracking-down-on-nycs-food-delivery-app-junk-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189853\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani Is Cracking Down on NYC’s Food Delivery App Junk Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Prospect Park Zoo’s red panda exhibit, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a crackdown on the fees food-delivery apps<\/a> charge to businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n

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The press conference’s location was a nod to the food delivery platform HungryPanda, which largely services Asian restaurants. The administration alleged that the app illegally overcharged hundreds of these businesses<\/a> through junk fees, and announced a $875,000 settlement on Wednesday. More than 380 restaurants will receive relief money, the mayor said, after the app “bamboozled hardworking New Yorkers.”<\/p>\n

“For so many restaurants and businesses<\/a>, it is already hard enough to balance daily costs \u2014 labor, rent, equipment, utilities \u2014 even harder, frankly, to stay afloat when a delivery platform steals hard-earned revenue,” said Mamdani, who was joined by Deputy Mayor Julie Su and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Sam Levine.<\/p>\n

Mamdani added that “this is the first-ever action to hold a delivery app accountable for violating the rights of New York City restaurant owners.” He said many of the restaurants affected are immigrant-owned and located in neighborhoods like Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens. The settlement will require the HungryPanda app to provide fee disclosures to users<\/a>, implement compliance policies, and submit annual compliance certifications, he said.<\/p>\n

Are you a New Yorker working to afford the city? Reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The city has investigated HungryPanda more than once<\/p>\n

Combating junk fees for NYC businesses and consumers has been a top priority for Mamdani in recent months. City law requires third-party food cap fee amounts<\/a> at 15% for delivery and 5% for other services.<\/p>\n

The HungryPanda app has been ordered to pay over $580,000 in restitution to affected restaurants, along with more than $294,000 in civil penalties and fees.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s HungryPanda settlement announcement also follows a January settlement<\/a> involving Uber Eats, Fantuan, and HungryPanda, in which the companies were ordered to pay over a total of $5 million for pay violations affecting nearly 50,000 workers. DCWP’s investigation at the time found that HungryPanda failed to pay workers the minimum pay rate between December 2023 and January 2024.<\/p>\n

HungryPanda did not immediately respond to a comment request about either settlement.<\/p>\n

Mamdani’s team secured a similar settlement for fast food and retail workers<\/a> this year \u2014 which the mayor announced while eating a Crunchwrap Supreme at a Taco Bell. He said his administration plans to continue to take on major corporations “exploiting” local workers.<\/p>\n

“We are putting abusers and violators of these laws on notice: If you break these laws, we will hold you accountable,” he said. “It is time to have a city where, when people play by the rules, they are not put at a disadvantage, because those who break them are allowed to do so with impunity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Prospect Park Zoo’s red panda exhibit, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a crackdown on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5160,1533,262,5024,76146,76144,76143,76145,1445,1092,9,56,63,65,64,1302,34339,23266,19109],"class_list":{"0":"post-189853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-business-insider","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-consumer","12":"tag-delivery-platform","13":"tag-fee-disclosure","14":"tag-hungrypanda-app","15":"tag-junk-fee","16":"tag-mamdani","17":"tag-mayor","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nyc-headlines","22":"tag-nyc-news","23":"tag-restaurant","24":"tag-settlement","25":"tag-wednesday","26":"tag-worker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}