Panel SA: 99Food closes delivery service with app couriers

99Food decided to end its delivery operation with delivery partners in the app in Brazil. The closing will take place on the 28th of February.

The company has already started to communicate the restaurants and delivery people of all the establishments registered in the application for all the cities in which it operates.

“On 02/28, 99Food will close the delivery intermediation operation with partner couriers (Fullservice model), and therefore, delivery will be the responsibility of the establishment itself”, it says in a statement.

With that, the company begins this month, a transition from 99Food to an operation focused on marketplace, without offering delivery service.

The delivery market has been going through a series of turbulences such as the competitive fights taken to Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) and the withdrawal of competitors from the market, such as Uber, which a year ago announced the end of its meal delivery services of restaurants by Uber Eats in Brazil. The brand was second in the market, behind iFood and ahead of Rappi.

In the coming months, the discussion on the regulation of workers through apps will also grow, a promise from the Lula government that, if it goes ahead, should be another subject with the potential to affect the market.

In the opinion of Paulo Solmucci, president of Abrasel (an association that brings together bars and restaurants), the announcement of 99Food is yet another important loss for the competition in food delivery.

“It is urgent that Cade decide soon on the processes involving iFood, otherwise there will be no one left, remembering that Delivery Center, Uber Eats and other minors have already left, always claiming the impossibility of maintaining the business with the dominance of iFood. Both Uber Eats As for 99, they denounced the anti-competitive practices to Cade”, says Solmucci.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix