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Zomato, Swiggy to meet NRAI today; former discontinues Infinity Dining feature

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Zomato suspends Infinity Dining service from app amidst the trouble with partner restaurants. The feature was removed right before the NRAI meeting.

Zomato suspends Infinity Dining service from app amidst the trouble with partner restaurants. The feature, coincidently, was removed temporarily right before the NRAI meeting to be held today with food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy. The company claims that it had the feature removed to integrate customers’ feedbacks and other suggestions it had received.

According to reports, the meeting is a follow up to discussions held the previous month between two food aggregators during which the executives from Zomato and Swiggy met members of NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India). The latter has raised concerns about the unfair practices followed by the aggregators such as massive discounts and bundling of services that were affecting the business at eateries in India.

The #logout campaign

In August, the restaurants commenced a battle with the apps when over 300 restaurants under NRAI began a #logout campaign. The highlighted issues by the association like “unreasonably high commissions, payment terms and arbitrarily applied additional charges” have been charged to be a part of the inventory. The restaurants in Gurugram removed themselves from platforms such as Zomato Gold, EazyDiner, Dineout’s Gourmet Passport, Nearbuy, MagicPin. The protest expanded to more than 1,200 restaurants across major cities.

End of Infinity Dining a solution?

The two months old Infinity Dining service is a premium service provided to Zomato Gold customers. The service is based on an all-you-can-eat model that allows its users to avail unlimited serving from the entire menu at a fixed per-person price which was decided by the restaurants. The service also gives open bar access to its consumers.

According to reports by ET, NRAI president Rahul Singh stated “Zomato’s attempt to sell the Infinity feature in the Gold program broke the final straw. We aren’t at all surprised that it shut down – it had to. On one hand, NRAI is advocating the conservation of water and other resources, and on the other hand, we get an ill-conceived product which promotes wastage.”

A Zomato spokesperson confirmed the move in an email,

“We received a range of feedback about Infinity Dining, and have paused it as we incorporate the feedback.”

The option that was available in over 350 restaurants and bars in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Mumbai has temporarily been disabled by the company. But does it resolve the issues of its costumers and its restaurant partners?

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