Uber-Like ‘Meal Sharing’ Miffs French Restaurateurs

French animosity for Uber-like services took a turn for the worse when the country’s restaurateurs’ union Synhorcat decided to support restaurant owners urging the government to take steps against the rising trend of Uber-like food services.

Since their launch, the services are fast catching up with tourists looking for an authentic French-style experience at a home, instead of going to restaurants that are often infamous for slow service and surly waiters, The Telegraph reported.

The growing popularity of websites such as VizEat has the restaurateurs worried for they see it as only a matter of time before the service gets widely popular much like Airbnb and Uber.

Didier Chenet, head of Synhorcat, said that so far 3,000 French households offering home-cooked dinners have registered as hosts on meal-sharing sites, and the number might grow up to 20,000 in the next three to five years if the authorities didn’t take action in time.

“You could say that’s not so worrying,” he told The Telegraph. “But if you look at Airbnb, in 2012 they had 7,000 homes in France, now they have 50,000.”

Moreover, he added, unlike restaurants, which are subjected to tough inspections, “they don’t respect any rules in terms of hygiene, food health, licenses to serve alcohol, the origin of products, allergies.”

On the other hand, meal-sharing sites like VizEat do not see their business affecting the restaurant industry in France. “Our hosts are amateurs who have guests occasionally, on average once a month in big cities,” said Camille Rumani, cofounder of VizEat, in an interview with AFP.

The meal-sharing service is not really of any monetary significance to households but only a way to showcase and share their culture with visitors who come from all over the world, she said. “It’s more of a fun activity than a catering activity.”

However, the growing number of such meal-sharing services is now coming on the radar as the country is seeing a rise in protests by local businesses fighting against Uber and Uber-like services. In the midst of these protests, Uber had to halt its UberPOP service in France after French police arrested two Uber France executives for running illegal taxi operations.



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