Court Rules Deliveroo Used ‘Discriminatory’ Algorithm

An algorithm used by the popular European food delivery app Deliveroo to rank and offer shifts to riders is discriminatory, an Italian court ruled late last week, in what some experts are calling a historic decision for the gig economy. The case was brought by a group of Deliveroo riders backed by CGIL, Italy’s largest trade union. From a report: A…

India Bans Another 43 Chinese Apps Over Cybersecurity Concerns

India is not done banning Chinese apps. The world’s second largest internet market, which has banned over 175 apps with links to the neighboring nation in recent months, said on Tuesday it was banning an additional 43 such apps. From a report: Like with the previous orders, India cited cybersecurity concerns to block these apps. “This action was taken based on…

‘Profitboss’ Is Saving Restaurants From Heavy Delivery App Fees

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Bay-area based startup Profitboss is pitching itself as the “easiest, fastest, and most convenient system to get back your customers from third party [services].” Free to restaurants, the service (which launched in 2018) lets restaurants open their own digital storefront. Profitboss CEO Adam Guild likes to compare his service to Shopify and the…

Portland Approves 10% Cap On Fees That Food Delivery Apps Can Charge Restuarants

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Oregon Live: The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to make it illegal for third-party food delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub to collect more than 10% in commission fees from city restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic. Portland joins other cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, that have instituted similar caps in recent…

How a Corporation Suddenly Faced ‘Flood’ of Lawsuits From Thousands of Gig Workers

Long-time Slashdot reader PalmAndy shared the New York Times profile of two pioneers in “mass arbitration.” One Silicon Valley founder created FairShake, an automated system to help consumers launch hundreds of arbitration cases against corporations like Comcast and AT&T. And then there’s attorney Travis Lenkner (and his firm Keller Lenkner), who says most companies never thought consumers would actually use arbitration….

The Gig Workers For Target’s Delivery App Hate Their Algorithmically-Determined Pay

In 2017 Target bought a same-day home-delivery company called Shipt for $550 million. Shipt now services half of Target’s stores, reports Motherboard, and employs more than 100,000 gig workers. Unfortunately, they’re working for a company that “has a track record of censoring and retaliating against workers for asking basic questions about their working conditions or expressing dissent,” reports Motherboard. For example,…