A restaurant owner in Delhi has alleged food aggregator Zomato of “system-level bias”, claiming that his outlet appears “unavailable” on the app during peak hours. Gagandeep Singh Sapra even shared “proof” in the form of a video to substantiate his claims.
‘System-level bias’
“For 31 days, we’ve escalated this, and nothing has changed. Our restaurant is repeatedly shown as ‘unavailable’ at peak hours while nearby outlets within 50 meters keep getting riders,” Sapra alleged in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He said the issue goes beyond “dynamic allocation” and instead reflects a deeper “system-level bias.”
In his post, Sapra uploaded a video that he says shows “manipulation” in Zomato’s rider allocation process. “Here’s video proof of how rider allocation is being manipulated at Zomato,” he further wrote.
Sapra shared video ‘proof’
The video, which is over a minute long, opens to show a restaurant named “Tadka Rani”, marked as closed. A notification right below the restaurant details read, “Closed right now. Sorry! All delivery partners are occupied. Please try after some time.”
He searched for yet another restaurant – “MCBC – Meal Combo Box Company”. This restaurant page also carried a similar warning.
A third – “Dana Choga” – was also showing as closed with a similar message.
Sapra then looked up for a few restaurants in the same area which were open – “Pot Pot – Yum Yum India Delivery”, “Burgerama” and “Ambersar By Enoki”.
Here’s video proof of how rider allocation is being manipulated at @zomato .
— Gagandeep Singh Sapra (@TheBigGeek) November 23, 2025
For 31 days we’ve escalated this, and nothing has changed. Our restaurant is repeatedly shown as ‘unavailable’ at peak hours while nearby outlets within 50 meters keep getting riders.
This isn’t… pic.twitter.com/syHpTkvVsi
‘Zomato’s game to increase commission’
In the comments section, Sapra further alleged that his restaurant is marked unavailable so Zomato can secure higher commissions from orders routed to selected outlets.
“It’s all a game of increasing our commission, from the current 52+ per cent that they take on sales, to let’s say a whopping 99 per cent of each sale. The greed is not ending, and Goyal Babu is unable to control the loose cannons in his team who are rigging the system,” he said, referring to Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato’s parent company, Eternal.
His post reached Aditya Mangla, the CEO of Zomato, who said that the company is looking into the issue raised by him.
Spara thanked Mangla for his response, adding that he has written to the employees at Zomato, but to no avail. “Thank you, Aditya ji. Means a lot that you reached out. I have written to all your team members and have had several meetings. Yesterday was the 31st Day, and no one seems to see a resolution,” he said.
In May this year, Sapra alleged that a cop came to his restaurant demanding money and free meals. He also shared CCTV screenshots showing the cop, reportedly attached to Delhi Police, standing near the kitchen area. When Sapra took the matter to the DCP of South East Delhi, he says he was asked to delete his post on X before any discussion could proceed. It remains unclear whether any action was taken against the officer seen in the CCTV footage.
