Indian food delivery major Zomato is close to an agreement with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) to share customer information with restaurants, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).
NRAI president Sagar Daryani told the newspaper that the industry body has also initiated similar negotiations with Swiggy, Zomato’s main competitor.
Zomato has begun introducing a consent feature that asks users if they are willing to allow their phone numbers to be shared with restaurants “to directly receive marketing and promotional updates.”
The association had earlier taken Zomato and Swiggy to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), alleging “anti-competitive practices such as data masking by delivery platforms.” That case remains under consideration at the regulator.
“It’s very important for us to know our customers… not to spam them, but to know their ordering habits and make proper marketing spends, using the right marketing funnel,” Daryani told ET.
The latest developments coincide with urban mobility company Rapido’s foray into food delivery through its Ownly service, which has signed a pact with NRAI committing to provide restaurants what was described as "valuable customer data".
A senior executive at a food deliverer told ET that earlier attempts by aggregators to pass on customer data to restaurant partners had prompted adverse reactions from users, leading platforms to scale back such initiatives.
“This time, we are working on something along with the restaurants to ensure the scope for the use of data that is being shared is limited and well defined,” the executive stated.
NRAI, which represents around 500,000 restaurants across India, has previously raised concerns over issues including deep discounting, rising commissions - which it said had climbed from between 5% and 7% to around 35% - and the masking of consumer data.
Information on average order values, preferred cuisines and location-specific tastes has long been a sticking point between restaurant brands and delivery aggregators.
“Swiggy and Zomato have masked consumer data for a very long time,” a senior executive at a large global quick service chain told ET. Access to such information “is crucial to our consumer interface strategies, and is absolutely necessary to help customise offers and promotions,” the executive added.
Zomato and Swiggy did not respond to ET’s enquiries.
In 2025, the NRAI also approached the CCI over the launch of separate ten‑minute delivery apps by Zomato and Swiggy, arguing that these amounted to engaging in “private labels and sale.”
