Karnataka Consumer Court Orders Zomato To Pay ₹60,000 For Not Delivering Momos To Woman

In a recent ruling, the Karnataka Consumer Court ordered the food delivery app, Zomato, to pay a sum of ₹60,000 to a woman from Dharwad. The compensation is for an order of undelivered momos placed online last year. The verdict was delivered on July 3 by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Dharwad. The judgement, which was posted on the official website of the redressal commission, stated that Sheetal ordered momos through the food delivery app on August 31, 2023, and paid ₹133.25 for the same via Google Pay. However, after 15 minutes of placing the order, she received a message stating her order had been delivered but no delivery agent came to her house nor did she receive her order.

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Upon asking about the status of her order, the restaurant revealed that the delivery agent had taken the order from them, but when she tried to enquire about the delivery agent through the website, he did not respond. Sheetal complained to Zomato through email the same day and received a response asking her to wait for 72 hours for her query.

As per the verdict, Sheetal tried her best to get through Zomato via email but to no avail. On September 13, 2023, Sheetal issued a legal notice to the food delivery app. Although a counsel of Zomato appeared in the court, they denied all allegations and dubbed them "false and created one." The consumer court, however, highlighted that Zomato had asked for 72 hours to respond to the query but failed to do so. So, their say in the matter seems unreliable.

Sheetal received compensation from Zomato of ₹133.25 on May 2 this year. However, the commission stated that the food delivery app provided the woman with poor service, causing mental stress and agony to her.

As per the release, the commission said, "Zomato is carrying their business of supply of materials in response to the online orders placed by the customer. Despite receipt of the purchase money, Zomato did not deliver the required product to the complainant. By looking into these facts of the case on hand in our opinion Op no. 1 (Zomato) alone is liable to answer the claim of the complainant."

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The president of the commission, Eshappa K Bhute, passed the judgement stating, "Keeping in mind these aspects we deem it proper to direct op No. 1 to pay ₹50,000 as compensation for inconvenience and mental agony caused to the complainant and her litigation cost at ₹10,000."