Restaurant owners and members of the hospitality industry are voicing opposition to possible extra fees from food delivery services such as Grubhub and DoorDash.

City councilmembers are considering a bill that would loosen the fee cap law, which restricts the amount of money food delivery services could charge restaurants per takeout order.

“Currently delivery apps can only charge a restaurant a total of 23% of an order in fees broken down as follows. Up to 15% for delivery fees,” said Carlos Ortiz, assistant commissioner for external affairs at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. “Up to 3% for transaction fees and up to 5% for other fees.”

Ortiz testified at a City Council hearing before the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection Wednesday.

During the hearing, councilmembers considered a bill that would amend the 23% restaurant fee limit placed on food delivery apps like Grubhub and DoorDash by the City Council two years ago when eateries were experiencing huge pandemic-related profit losses.

“How many violations of delivery fee caps have been issued?” Bronx Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, who is also committee chair, asked Ortiz’s colleague, who answered that no violations had been issued.

“Introduction 813 seeks to amend the caps. Our understanding of the bill as it is drafted is that it will allow delivery apps to charge additional fees to restaurants in exchange for being listed and marketed on their platforms,” Ortiz said.

Many restaurants, owners and members of the city’s hospitality industry have expressed outrage about the proposal.

“And this bill today, what we’re coining the “Bigger Fees for Big Delivery Companies,” is going to gut the fee cap and allow the exploitative fees to go up and up,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. “So if restaurants don’t pay them, they lose their customers, they lose access to their customers.”

Many restaurants are still recovering from the pandemic. Owners contend that changing the fee structure could give delivery apps undue control over the customers and profits of those restaurants.

DoorDash, one of the food delivery app companies suing the city over the fee caps, testified during Wednesday’s hearing that the new bill would not end fee limits entirely or require restaurants to pay exorbitant fees but give them access to more marketing options through the apps.

“If the law stays in place unchanged DoorDash may need to reduce service levels, raise customer fees or take other actions that would inevitably lead to fewer orders being placed through the platform,” said Sascha Owens, senior manager of government relations in New York for DoorDash.

DoorDash estimates that such a scenario could cause potentially more than $90 million in lost revenue for city restaurants.

Queens Councilmember Robert Holden introduced the bill that would amend the law on fee caps.

He was not at Wednesday’s committee hearing and was not available for comment.