Grubhub is accused of ‘cybersquatting’ by setting up 30,000 fake websites disguised as linked restaurant homepages on its app to jack up prices and charge crippling commission fees
Grubhub has reportedly bought domain names and created copycat websites
These dummy sites look almost exactly like the restaurants’ actual websites but were set up without the restaurant owners’ permission
The shadowy practice known as ‘cybersquatting’ is an apparent effort to increase the commissions restaurants have to pay to Grubhub
They have to pay a higher fee if orders are placed through Grubhub or Seamless
Grubhub has bought 34,000 URLs since 2010, according to The New York Post
The menu prices on the fake sites are often higher than on the restaurant’s page
The sites have also been describes as ‘predatory’ as the phone numbers listed are Grubhub’s and they charge commission for forwarding calls to restaurants
Grubhub claims it created domain names for restaurants ‘as a service’ to them
The company denies cybersquatting or trying to take restaurants’ business
