Online food delivery company Grubhub has bought thousands of domain names that are similar to ones already on its platform or trying to become one, according to a new report from New Food Economy. The company owns more than 23,000 of these identical domains that it has set up to look like landing pages for restaurants on its platform. The sites even have an online order form to trick consumers into thinking they belong to the restaurants themselves. Restaurant owners are against the discovery and believe that Grubhub is deceiving users trying to visit their sites by ordering on their platform. The company is the largest online meal delivery service in the United States and is also the parent company of a number of similar services, including Eat24, MenuPages, and Seamless. However, DoorDash and Uber Eats began to threaten their dominance as they gained popularity.
Fake sites
All Grubhub-owned domains use a similar template and feature menu items from current restaurants. To make matters worse, some of the fake sites even use photos taken directly from the restaurant's official website or from other competing delivery services. The company's system works as such: Grubhub buys domains similar to a restaurant website, then uses their original logos, as well as images of stolen food, to create a very convincing fake website. These sites also include links to allow customers to place orders that effectively redirect them to one of the company's delivery services. Fake sites are just another way to earn more commission from restaurants, but Grubhub has defended their deceptive practices in a statement sent to the new food economy, stating: "Grubhub has never been cybersquatted, which ICANN identifies as "registration generally in bad faith of another person's trademark in a domain name." As a service to our restaurants, we have created for them microsites that are another source of brand presence control and have registered domains on their behalf, in accordance with our catering contracts this service and we have always had the habit of transferring the farm to the restaurant as soon as they request it. Restaurant owners who are concerned their site has been copied can view the full list compiled by New Food Economy here. across the edge