Wolt to pay NIS 8.5 million for violating competition law
Wolt to pay NIS 8.5 million for violating competition law
The Israel Competition Authority says that the food delivery service highlighted restaurants that work exclusively with its delivery service on its application, which violates competition law
Wolt will pay the state a fine of NIS 8.5 million (approximately $2.3 million), after admitting that it violated competition law, according to an agreement that the food delivery company signed with the Israel Competition Authority. At the center of the claim against the company was the promotion of specific restaurants on the main page of its application.
Until January 2022, the main page included a section called "Only on Wolt,” which highlighted restaurants in the Tel Aviv area that work exclusively with the company's delivery service. "This was a threat to competition and is against the law, given that during the relevant period Wolt operated under limited competitive restraints, the high reliance of restaurants on its delivery service restaurants, and considering Wolt’s size and volume of orders," the agreement reads.
Wolt removed the section following the request of the Israel Competition Authority, and the two parties have now reached an agreement in which Wolt admitted that its actions could have harmed competition and was contrary to the law.
Wolt said in response: "At the beginning of operations in Israel in 2019, the app was launched, one of dozens, which included restaurants from which deliveries could only be received through Wolt, mainly because until then they did not offer online deliveries to the consumer at all. We saw this section as a legitimate way to promote restaurants at the beginning of our operations in Israel, and it hasn’t existed in the application for about a year. We have reached an agreement with the Competition Authority, and it is important to emphasize that there is no allegation of harm caused to the public or harm to actual competition."
