Grubhub has agreed to pay $7.1 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing the delivery platform of using restaurants’ names and trademarks without permission, marking the end of a yearslong legal clash that began in 2020.
On Tuesday, a coalition of restaurants urged U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt in Illinois to grant preliminary approval to the settlement. The deal, they said, spares both sides the uncertainty and steep costs of continuing the courtroom fight.
“While plaintiffs believe both the facts and the law support their claims, the proposed settlement offers meaningful relief without the risks, delays, and expenses of prolonged litigation,” the motion stated.
Years in the Making
The restaurants — including Antonia’s of Hillsborough, North Carolina, and The Farmer’s Wife of Sebastopol, California — stressed that the agreement comes after several years of discovery and negotiation, with multiple failed attempts at settlement before finally breaking through.
The litigation first ignited in 2020, when eateries accused Grubhub of adding more than 150,000 restaurants to its platform without consent in an effort to outmaneuver rivals DoorDash and Uber Eats. Owners argued that unsuspecting customers, ordering through Grubhub, were misled into thinking they were dealing directly with the restaurants. When orders went wrong, it was the eateries — not Grubhub — who bore the brunt of customer frustration.
