What UK partner terms say about closing your restaurant
Restaurant chains sign these documents and never read them until something goes wrong, and the three UK platforms differ enough that the habit is expensive. Deliveroo publishes a hygiene policy with named thresholds and a documented route back. Just Eat states its rules in partner guidance and not in a contract you were given. Uber Eats publishes a broad suspension clause and, on the subject of hygiene, almost nothing. Knowing which of the three you are dealing with changes what you can argue.
What does Deliveroo publish?
The most specific material of the three, and it separates listing from promotion.
On listing: “You need an FSA hygiene rating of at least 2 to list on the Deliveroo platform, unless you fall within an Exception”, and partners “falling below a Rating of 2 will therefore be removed from the platform except where an Exception applies”.
On enforcement: “This policy forms part of your agreement with Deliveroo. We will investigate and may take action (including suspending the provision of our services) if you breach these obligations.”
And on getting back: a partner should make the improvements, request a re-visit from the local authority, and once a rating of 2 or above is obtained, “provide confirmation of your new Rating to your account manager who will arrange for you to be reinstated”.
Worth noting that Deliveroo’s own sign-up guidance phrases the threshold differently, listing as a disqualifier that “Your FSA Hygiene Rating is less than or equal to 2”. The two readings do not reconcile, and if you are near the line the difference matters.
What does Just Eat publish?
Clear thresholds, but in a knowledge base rather than in a partner contract we have been able to locate.
“a minimum of 3* or Pass in Scotland is required to sign-up and remain trading on Just Eat”, and the condition is described as continuing: “As long as you meet the minimum requirements of a 3* or Pass or are listed as ‘Awaiting Inspection’ on the FSA website, you can continue to trade with Just Eat.”
The distinction between guidance and contract is worth holding onto. Guidance tells you what will happen. A contract tells you what you agreed. If you need to argue, ask for the contractual provision behind the guidance instead of quoting the guidance back.
What does Uber Eats publish?
A general suspension power and no hygiene threshold that we could find on any Uber-owned page.
Its merchant terms carry a general power to suspend access, and the word hygiene appears in them once, with no threshold attached to it. Its community guidelines refer to a food hygiene rating policy without a working link to one.
So on this platform the practical position is that you are subject to a policy you cannot read. That is a reason to ask your account manager for it in writing, and to keep the reply.
Which clauses should I read first in any of them?
Four, and they take twenty minutes.
The suspension clause, meaning what allows the platform to switch you off. The eligibility conditions for any programme you rely on for volume. The notice provisions, if any, on changes to terms. And the route back, meaning who decides you are reinstated and what evidence they want.
Everything else can wait. Those four determine what happens on your worst day.
What is missing from all three?
Anything about who carries the cost of an interruption the platform caused.
None of these documents commits to compensating a restaurant for trading time lost to a platform-side closure, and none of them keeps a downtime history the restaurant is entitled to see. So the evidential burden sits entirely with the restaurant, and most restaurants have no record at all.
So measure it independently. If the platform will not publish a record and the restaurant does not keep one, no record exists at all, and a Kitchain (kitchain.co) series is simply the version that is not the platform’s.