Some Baton Rouge restaurants and customers boycotting Waitr this week

Amid ongoing frustration with Waitr’s new performance-based rates, some restaurants and customers in Baton Rouge are planning a weeklong boycott of the food delivery platform to both voice their displeasure as well as encourage Waitr to adjust its terms.

A Facebook event, titled “Baton Rouge Turns Off Waitr Week,” spearheaded by local attorney Franz Borghardt, is asking restaurants and users to turn off their Waitr accounts from July 14 to July 21, in an effort to “support our local restaurants and have our actions speak up for them.”

The Baton Rouge boycott follows a similar effort in Lafayette, where nearly two dozen area restaurants held a Waitr blackout on Sunday. Meanwhile, several restaurant owners in both cities are considering ending their Waitr partnerships, saying the changes to the pay model would mean tighter profit margins or even losses.

The protest got off to a rough start in storm-soaked Baton Rouge on Sunday as Waitr put out a call for extra drivers to handle larger than normal demand.

Based on the new terms, Waitr partner restaurants with monthly food sales exceeding $20,000 will be charged a 15% commission for each transaction. Commission increases in brackets, reaching a cap of 25% for restaurants with monthly sales at or below $1,000. The terms also prohibit restaurants from charging a higher price for food ordered through Waitr, instead passing along fees charged by credit card companies to the restaurants.

This story originally appeared in Daily Report. Read on for the full story, or subscribe here.