The food delivery platform is a hub connecting catering merchants, consumers, and delivery personnel, and is an important component of the platform economy. In the first half of this year, competition among food delivery platforms intensified, and irrational competition among platform enterprises led to significant negative externalities, resulting in a series of problems such as market price signal failure, damage to merchant interests within the platform, decreased food service quality, and food waste, which have attracted widespread attention. On December 2nd, the recommended national standard for "Basic Requirements for Delivery Platform Service Management" was released and implemented. On December 4th, major food delivery platforms issued a statement implementing the standard. How can this standard guide food delivery platforms to standardize their service management behavior and improve service quality in response to prominent contradictions and key shortcomings in food delivery platform service management? The reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the State Administration for Market Regulation. The platform cannot force merchants to participate in promotions. Q: How will the standards regulate the irrational competition among food delivery platforms that is widely concerned by society? Answer: Some food delivery platforms engage in competition through excessive "subsidies" and other means, and a large number of merchants within the platform are trapped in the dilemma of "no traffic without participation and no profit without participation". This irrational competition disrupts the pricing system, squeezes the reasonable profit margin of merchants, and may even bring food safety issues, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the entire industry. The standard provides systematic guidance for this. Distinguish between "platform price promotion" and "merchant price promotion". The platform price promotion is initiated and funded by the food delivery platform, and the corresponding costs should be borne by the platform itself. The platform cannot include merchant subsidies, promote the large subsidy volume to attract users, or transfer the costs to merchants or delivery personnel in any way. On the promotional page and payment settlement page, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between platform price promotions and merchant price promotions, which not only guarantees consumers' right to know, but also makes promotional behavior more transparent. Standardize promotional and advertising behavior. Merchants promote their products through bidding ranking, paid top placement, and other methods, and the platform should clearly mark them as "advertisements" for consumers to identify; We cannot use exaggerated labels such as hiding partial expenses, promoting "zero yuan purchases", and excessive repetitive push methods to carry out marketing activities. At the same time, when the platform carries out promotional activities, it should inform merchants of the scope, rules, and other information of the promotion at least 7 days in advance, leaving enough preparation time for merchants. Ensure the autonomy of merchants. The standard proposes to fully guarantee the autonomy of merchants' operations. Platforms cannot force or indirectly force merchants to participate in promotional activities through various means, and should fully guarantee the independent pricing rights of merchants participating in platform price promotions. For merchants who have not participated in platform price promotions, the platform cannot impose restrictions such as reducing natural search rankings or limiting traffic. Simplify the charging rules and make it clear to merchants what to charge and how much to charge. Q: What are the standards for addressing the issue of opaque and unreasonable platform fees reported by many catering merchants? Answer: Based on the requirements of laws, regulations, and rules, the standards have refined and supplemented the charging behavior of external sales platforms from multiple dimensions. Unified fee items. In response to the problems of complex charging items, numerous names, and unclear rules in the industry, the standard has unified the fees charged by the platform to merchants into three categories: technical service fees, delivery service fees, and promotion service fees. The platform is also required to simplify the charging rules, so that merchants can clearly understand key information such as "what to charge and how much to charge". Standardize charging behavior. The platform should incorporate fee compliance into its compliance governance system, and further regulate platform fee behavior by listing unreasonable charging situations such as "cancellation of orders due to non merchant reasons still charging fees" and "forcing merchants to purchase services or participate in activities and charge fees". At the same time, platform enterprises are encouraged to provide preferential support to small and medium-sized merchants, and establish a mechanism for reducing technical service fees. Strengthen information disclosure. In the disclosure of charging information, guide the platform to prominently disclose key information such as charging rules, and provide merchants with real and complete settlement details to enhance the transparency of platform charging. In terms of adjusting the charging rules, strict procedural requirements should be put forward for the platform. If it is necessary to establish new charging items, opinions should be fully solicited and publicized. A reasonable transition period should also be set up to ensure the merchants' right to know and participate, and to avoid adverse effects on their operations. Refine specific requirements for storefront photos, environmental photos, and kitchen photos. Q: Consumers are generally concerned about "ghost takeout". How can the standards ensure the safety of takeout food? Answer: The country has formulated a series of regulatory requirements in terms of food safety, and platforms should strictly comply with them. On this basis, the standard proposes to strengthen the platform's main responsibility and effectively solve the problem of "ghost food delivery". Strengthen the management of entry. Firstly, the platform needs to set up a dedicated team and personnel to review the information provided by merchants through manual or technical means. Those who do not meet the entry requirements cannot operate online. Secondly, the standard has put forward unified requirements for merchants to join the food delivery platform. In addition to submitting necessary qualification information, specific requirements such as storefront photos, environmental photos, and kitchen photos have been further refined. Merchants are also required to record and upload real, uninterrupted videos with store location information. Finally, the platform should review the dine in area information submitted by merchants. After the review is approved, a label with the words "dine in" should be prominently marked for merchants to facilitate consumer identification. Strengthen operational management. The platform should publicize the effective business qualifications of merchants and fully protect consumers' right to know. We need to strengthen the identification of food safety risks. In the event of concentrated customer complaints or discrepancies between actual business addresses and registered addresses, further verification of information is required and relevant measures should be taken. The platform should also conduct spot checks and monitoring of merchant information, with a monthly spot check rate of no less than 5%. We will promote "Internet plus". Merchants should actively cooperate with the implementation of "Internet plus+Bright Kitchen", and make the key process of catering food processing and production public in real time through the use of video monitoring network. The platform is encouraged to provide corresponding support for merchants to implement the "Internet plus". Optimizing platform scheduling algorithms to alleviate delivery time pressure. Q: How can we strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of food delivery personnel? Answer: Optimize the platform scheduling algorithm. The platform should comprehensively consider factors such as road conditions and weather to optimize scheduling algorithms, scientifically plan delivery routes and delivery times. If driving an electric bicycle for delivery, the average speed for calculating the duration should not exceed 15 kilometers per hour. For orders that exceed the delivery time due to slow delivery by merchants, additional time should be added to the order and other affected orders to alleviate delivery time pressure. Gradually increase the labor remuneration of delivery personnel. Delivery platforms and labor cooperation enterprises should continuously improve the labor remuneration distribution mechanism that matches the work tasks and labor intensity of delivery personnel, and pay them in full and on time. If delivery personnel work during statutory holidays, inclement weather, nighttime, etc., the platform and labor cooperative enterprises should provide subsidies or work allowances. In principle, platforms and labor cooperative enterprises should not use deduction as a punishment for delivery delays, consumer negative reviews, and other situations. Ensure the right to rest for delivery personnel. The platform should reasonably limit the time for delivery personnel to receive orders, establish a fatigue warning mechanism, and emphasize that the platform shall not force or indirectly force delivery personnel to work overtime through algorithms, cancellations, etc., and effectively safeguard the right of delivery personnel to rest. When setting up attendance awards, it is also necessary to ensure that delivery personnel have at least one day off per week on average. Strengthen the management of employment cooperation enterprises. The adoption of labor cooperation in the food delivery industry is a common phenomenon, and standards have also made corresponding arrangements for this. Cooperative enterprises should fulfill corresponding responsibilities in the management of delivery personnel, social security, distribution of labor remuneration, career development and care. When there is a change in management rules involving significant interests of delivery personnel, the employing cooperative enterprise should fully listen to the opinions of the platform, labor union, and delivery personnel representatives. (New Society)