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Just Eat adds a cheeky 50p service charge to dodge EU rules
Thanks to new EU regulations, you won't have to put up with irritating card surcharges for much longer. Unfortunately, minimum card spends you come across in small shops and such will stick around, but from January 13th, the Payment Services Directive comes into play. This stops retailers from charging you more for, say, using a credit card than a debit card, or generally just passing the transaction fee onto the customer. It won't, however, make your Just Eat delivery any cheaper. That's because yesterday, ahead of the new EU rules being implemented, Just Eat did away with its 50p fee for paying by card, and instead created a new 50p "service charge" that applies to all orders.
Just Eat gets the approval it needs to acquire Hungryhouse
Five years ago, a merger between Just Eat and Hungryhouse would have been impossible in the UK. They were two of the largest online takeaway sites and would, therefore, have created a monopoly. Now, of course, the situation is a little different. With Deliveroo, UberEats and Amazon vying for orders, both companies are now mid-sized players in Britain. As a result, the Competition and Markets Authority has approved Just Eat's acquisition of Hungryhouse, which was originally announced last December. In short, the regulator believes competition will still be rife in the UK, and that Hungryhouse wasn't large enough to survive on its own.
Just Eat devours takeaway rival Hungryhouse for £200 million
Just Eat, ravenous for global expansion, has bought rivals Hungryhouse and SkipTheDishes for £266 million. The two acquisitions will help the company to consolidate its position as one of the biggest food delivery startups on the planet. In the UK, Hungryhouse is one of its biggest rivals, with close but not quite equal marketing spend and brand recognition. Buying the brand from Delivery Hero for £200 million will increase Just Eat's scale and remove any threat it once posed. Likewise, picking up SkipTheDishes will bolster its business in Canada, while removing a potentially dangerous chess piece from an increasingly cluttered board.
