Food feud: NRAI slams Zomato for logging out of talks

Restaurant association NRAI on Friday decried food aggregator Zomato for coming out of talks to resolve differences over deep discounting, and said other platforms have rejigged their offers to cut discounts.

In a statement, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) thanked aggregators such as Dineout, Eazydiner, Magicpin and Nearbuy for rejigging their features to eradicate the deep discounting epidemic.

"For generations the restaurant sector has been serving patrons without the distraction of technology. With the evolution of time, use of technology is imperative. Technology has to be seen as an enabler of privileges, not a privilege itself," NRAI President Rahul Singh said.

The strength of technology and its adoption is therefore paramount to avoid detrimental circumstances like we have witnessed where discovery platforms have pivoted into discounting ones, he added.

"We understand the importance of loyalty as it has to be earned, not purchased through discounts. We thank Dineout, Eazydiner, Magicpin & Nearbuy for rejigging their features to eradicate the deep discounting epidemic," Singh said.

However, Zomato has decided to cut all ties by saying that it is logging out of the restaurants' #logout campaign. From our end, that simply implies #ZoGoisNoGo, he added.

Commenting on the development, a Zomato spokesperson said: "All our products are always in a continuous state of evolution, and we are always listening to our users and our partners."
Meanwhile, Dineout CEO and co-founder Ankit Mehrotra said: "We're happy to have come to a positive consensus with the NRAI and support our restaurant partners."