Parker city council to vote on limiting food delivery service fees

On Monday night, Parker city council will vote on the proposed limit on food service delivery fees, HB20B-1005. The which became law December 7th, allows local governments to limit delivery fees charged by companies such as Door Dash and Grubhub.

CO HB20B-1005

“Local Authority To Impose Food Delivery Fee Restrictions” allows cities such as Parker to limit fees when indoor dining capacity is below 50%, which would be this week as restaurants are open at only 50%.

The legislation places severe limits on a free market economy and dictates that a price charged by a company is “too much,” even if only during select time periods. Elected officials should make laws that make sense rather than wasting time worrying about how much it costs for their constituents to have cheeseburgers delivered to their homes.

If a legislature such as the state of Colorado or the Parker city council may arbitrarily decide which prices are reasonable and which are not, then voters have in a sense given elected officials the power to determine the fairness of pricing for other goods and services. Elected officials are not qualified to price goods services in a free economy, and they shouldn’t be expected to do so.

As the city of discovered, limiting fees that private companies charge leads those companies to charge other fees such as “city fees” to circumvent the loss of revenue caused by an over zealous and economically socialist legislature.

While “reduced fees” may sound ideal to the average consumer, the average consumer should be wary of price fixing by way of the government. No one has the right to dictate what a gallon of milk or a television coats, save for the people selling those items. Delivery services are no different and deserve equal protection and ability to generate as much revenue as they desire. Consumers may decide the fees are too much and not utilize such services; that’s how the free market works.