By Heather Haddon

Uber Technologies sued DoorDash, accusing its biggest food-delivery rival of anticompetitive practices that jack up costs for restaurants and consumers.

In a suit filed Friday in state superior court in California, Uber accused DoorDash of coercing restaurants to exclusively work with DoorDash for parts of their delivery business. Uber said DoorDash threatened higher commission rates for restaurants that also use Uber's Eats service to manage some orders.

"Uber's case has no merit," DoorDash said Friday. "Their claims are unfounded and based on their inability to offer merchants, consumers, or couriers a quality alternative."

Uber, DoorDash and other food delivery services run app-based marketplaces where consumers can browse and order restaurant fare ranging from chicken wings to pad thai. The companies also provide direct delivery services, handling orders placed through restaurants' own websites.

Restaurants pay the delivery companies commissions for advertising, and for delivery handled by gig workers. DoorDash held 63% of the national delivery market last year, followed by Uber at 25% and Grubhub at 6%, according to data firm Earnest Analytics.

Uber said it filed the suit after hearing from restaurants that felt bullied. "DoorDash's coercive tactics reduce restaurant-customer and consumer choice, resulting in higher prices, lower-quality service, and decreased innovation," Uber said in the complaint.

Uber is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and a court order requiring DoorDash to change its practices.

Restaurant delivery boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic and has continued to attract consumers, though increasing profits remains tough. DoorDash earlier this week reported its second quarterly profit since going public in 2020. The Uber Eats food delivery operation, which Uber runs alongside its larger ride-share business, has slowly become more profitable.

Grubhub, once one of the market's leaders, sold itself last year for $650 million, including debt, a fraction of its original value.

In its complaint, Uber said in several instances it had provided direct delivery services to restaurants until DoorDash intervened.

Last year, Uber said, a large restaurant group abruptly canceled long-running plans to have Uber provide direct delivery services after DoorDash said it would increase commissions for handling the restaurant group's marketplace orders, according to the complaint.

Uber's complaint alleged that DoorDash threatened to raise another restaurant's commission rates by 30% per marketplace order, or told an eatery that partnering with Uber would cost restaurants tens of millions of dollars in additional DoorDash fees. Uber said it lost out on millions of dollars in business as a result.

Scott Landers, a former restaurant owner who runs the Figure 8 consulting firm for eateries, said some of his clients have run into pushback from DoorDash when they sought to use Uber for direct delivery. Landers said DoorDash would seek to change the terms of their marketplace service if a restaurant used Uber for direct delivery.

"Even increasing a commission by 2 or 4 percentage points is a big hit," Landers said.

Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 14, 2025 18:19 ET (23:19 GMT)

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