Swiggy agrees to refund unauthorised campaign fees; Bengaluru hotels to wait till September 1

Swiggy has agreed to refund unauthorized campaign fees collected from Bengaluru restaurants, but has requested a deadline of August 31 to resolve most of the industry's ongoing demands. The decision was made following talks with restaurant representatives, led by Swiggy's CEO Rohit Kapoor and other executives. The discussions come in the wake of Zomato's recent agreement to address similar concerns.

Swiggy has also offered to draft a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with industry bodies, which is expected to be signed next week. The Bangalore Hotels Association (BHA) has extended its boycott deadline until August 31, threatening to shut down their app on September 1 if Swiggy fails to address their concerns. The association's demands include prior consent for promotional campaigns, transparent deductions of agreed-upon commissions and statutory charges, and service charges applied only to the food component of bills, excluding GST.

BHA also seeks dedicated points of contact for monthly visits and a weekly Swiggy Helpdesk to resolve operational, accounting, and payout-related issues. Swiggy has stated that it has already taken some steps to address the concerns by implementing an OTP-based consent mechanism, but the restaurant representatives insist on the refund of unauthorized charges.