A Nigerian consumer, Dolapo Adedeji has formally dragged Chowdeck, a rapidly expanding food delivery platform before the courts.
Before now, Adedeji had lodged a complaint earlier in the court at the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) in Abuja. His grievance stems from what he described as multiple orders where Chowdeck’s app displayed food prices dramatically higher than those listed at the actual eateries, markups ranging from 25% to a staggering 50%, applied before any delivery fees are even factored in.
Adedeji had initially chalked up the differences to larger portions or special platform deals, but according to him, direct checks with restaurant vendors showed that Chowdeck dictates these inflated rates despite publicly claiming that merchants set their own pricing.
Compounding the issue, Adedeji alleges that Chowdeck’s policies on order cancellations are equally predatory, imposing non-refundable fees even when users pull out early due to app glitches or second thoughts. In his suit, he’s demanding not just personal refunds for affected orders but broader remedies including mandatory clear labeling of platform-specific price differences, an end to unfair cancellation penalties, and a tribunal ruling affirming that consumers shouldn’t bear the brunt of the company’s commission-based revenue model, which reportedly skims 25-30% from each transaction.
Should the CCPT rule in Adedeji’s favour, Chowdeck might need to overhaul its pricing interface with bold “platform markup” warnings, recalibrate fee structures, and even compensate affected users. Rivals would likely follow suit to dodge similar scrutiny.
