LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Christina Martin was surprised when a customer called her restaurant, Manizza's Pizza, asking for an item she didn't have on her menu.
What she discovered after that surprised her even more: Uber Eats, the online food delivery platform, was serving customers from a restaurant that used her name, but not her food.
Martin said she doesn't use Uber Eats, for a variety of reasons. But when she downloaded the app, she found the faux Manizza's, and even ordered from them.
"This is my third restaurant concept. I'm no stranger to how hard it is to build a brand when we're competing with all the big guys in Las Vegas," she said. "It's tough. And so we pour our time and our energy and our savings and just everything into building these restaurants. To have someone be able to rip it off on behalf of an app? It's crazy."
Martin took to social media to blow the whistle and sparked a surge of other restaurants that had also been impersonated online. And that's raised concerns not only about damaged reputations but also public health and safety.
"The restaurant that was catfishing...on the platform had health ratings that I would really rip my manager apart for," she said. "So you can see those demerits all on the internet."
James Trees is the chef and owner at several popular Las Vegas restaurants, including Esther's Kitchen, Al Solito Posto and Ada's Food and Wine, among others. He said he learned he'd been impersonated when an Uber Eats delivery driver showed up at Esther's Kitchen to pick up an order.
But like Martin, Trees specifically doesn't use Uber Eats, or any other delivery service for that matter.
Later, he got a one-star Google review that referenced Uber Eats, an unusual demerit for the popular Esther's.
"The fact that there are bad reviews on the site from people who didn't even receive food from the restaurant, which is pushing down the rating of our restaurant, that's unfortunate," Trees said.
"We need to be able to own our own future and be able to continue to build our brands, but if they're going to be ripped off by someone who can just take a picture off a website and then take a picture of our logo and all of a sudden they can sell whatever they want at any price, that's not good for us as makers of food or developers of brands and it's not good for consumers in Las Vegas and in Nevada," he said.
Trees complained to Uber Eats, and the problem stopped, but only for a short time. Two months later, pictures of his food and his logo showed up on the app again, he said. The perpetrator was the same.
The problem grew so widespread that several Las Vegas restaurants filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber Eats last year. That litigation is pending.
▶ Watch Las Vegas restaurants file class action lawsuit against Uber Eats
That's one of the reasons why Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett, D-Clark County, decided to introduce Assembly Bill 116, which would require all online food delivery platforms to certify the restaurants they serve have not only a business license, but a county health certificate as well. Violations would be a misdemeanor.
"These virtual brands can only be found on delivery apps, and their offerings are prepared in what have come to be known as 'ghost kitchens,'" Torres-Fossett said at a hearing for the bill on Monday. "Food delivery platforms have a responsibility of vetting the businesses on their platforms."
Torres-Fossett said the ghost kitchens may not have health certificates and inspections, which creates a public safety risk.
Representatives for Uber submitted a proposed amendment to AB 116. It would, among other things:
- Require just a business license to be verified by the delivery platform, not a license and a health certificate.
- Change the penalty from a criminal misdemeanor (punishable by one year in the county jail and a fine of up to $1,000) to a civil penalty with a $500 fine.
"Through partnerships between food dispensing establishments and delivery platforms, a useful and efficient industry has developed that assists the communities Uber serves in both convenience to the customer and jobs for the deliverers and food dispensing establishments," the company said in a statement, read by lobbyist A.J. Delap at the hearing.
But Torress-Fossett said at the hearing that the Uber amendment doesn't do enough to prevent ghost kitchens from operating. But she — and other representatives of tech platforms — pledged to continue to work together on the bill.
The bill faces an April 11 deadline to pass out of committee or it will be considered dead for the rest of the session.
Do you have a question about the Nevada Legislature, politics, government or elections? Email us using the Ask Steve link on our website.
Local News
Ask Steve: Your questions about politics, elections and government in Nevada
