The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) has decided to boycott delivery services under Zomato’s Gold program, reported The Economic Times. The decision by the 8000-strong body makes the situation worse for Zomato that is already facing a boycott on dine-in, the report said.

The ban, the report said, comes over allegations of delivery from illegally-run kitchens, steep discounts offered for Zomato Gold members and unavailability of delivery executives. We had clearly told Zomato that we are completely against the Zomato Gold delivery service scheme and asked them to scrap it. However, there has been no action by the food aggregator on the same,” association president Santosh Shetty was quoted as saying in the report.

Launched in 2017 as a membership program, Zomato Gold offers members one free dish each time they place an order. However, the scheme has been opposed by the restaurant industry who allege that it hurts their profitability.

The association, the report said, has demanded scrapping of the ‘gold service’ and an end to alleged arbitrary commissions and steep discounts in addition to end providing service to non-licenced eateries.