New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection announced on April 8, 2026 that HungryPanda Ltd, a UK-based delivery platform focused on Chinese and Asian immigrant-owned restaurants, agreed to pay more than $875,000 to settle violations of the city’s Third-Party Food Delivery Service Laws. The settlement routes more than $580,000 in restitution to more than 380 restaurants citywide and more than $294,000 to the city in civil penalties and fees, and it is the first time DCWP has enforced the Fee Cap Law against a delivery app on behalf of restaurant owners rather than workers.
The Mamdani administration announced the settlement at a press conference held beside the red panda exhibit at Prospect Park Zoo, a deliberate visual reference to the company name. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, inaugurated on January 1, 2026 as the 112th mayor of New York City, said that “too many neighborhood restaurants are already navigating high costs and razor-thin margins. They should not also have to contend with hidden, illegal fees from the apps they rely on to reach customers.”
How HungryPanda Overcharged 380 Restaurants
DCWP found that HungryPanda systematically overcharged restaurants between January 2022 and September 2024, the window during which New York’s Third-Party Food Delivery Service Laws capped platform fees at 23 percent, and again before June 30, 2025, the notification deadline that followed the city’s move to a new 43 percent maximum. The department identified three tactics used to work around the cap. HungryPanda bundled multiple fees into a single line item, frequently relabeled fees to disguise their purpose, and mischaracterized illegal overcharges as “promotion deductions” on restaurant settlement statements.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su framed the case as a test of enforcement reach. “HungryPanda counted on these restaurant owners being too small and too busy to fight back. They were wrong. This settlement puts money back in the pockets of hundreds of immigrant-owned businesses, and it’s a clear message to every platform in this city that we are watching the fine print.”
HungryPanda, founded in 2017 in Nottingham, England and now operating in more than 80 cities across 10 countries, issued its own statement confirming that the matter was concluded through settlement without judicial determination. The company said it “has engaged constructively with the regulator and has continued to review and refine its operations to meet evolving local requirements.” Under the settlement HungryPanda must comply with the Fee Cap Law going forward, provide clear fee disclosures to restaurants, implement internal compliance policies and staff training, and submit annual compliance certifications to the city.
Where the Fee Cap Law Stands Now
New York first capped third-party delivery fees in 2020 as a pandemic-era emergency measure and made the 23 percent cap permanent in August 2021. DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Relay sued shortly after, and the city settled the litigation in June 2025 by moving to a new cap structure that allows up to 43 percent in total, broken out as 15 percent for delivery, 5 percent for a basic marketplace plan, 20 percent for enhanced services, and 3 percent for payment processing. The revised law took effect on May 31, 2025 with a June 30 notification deadline for restaurants to learn which fee plans their platforms were offering.
The HungryPanda case is the first DCWP enforcement action under that framework to target a platform on behalf of operators rather than couriers. In January 2026 the department had announced a separate $5 million settlement with HungryPanda, Uber Eats, and Fantuan over minimum-pay violations for delivery workers, including more than $1 million repaid to HungryPanda couriers.
A Broader Enforcement Window Is Opening
The settlement lands inside a wider federal push. The Federal Trade Commission announced a nationwide review of delivery-app hidden fees in April 2026, building on its $60 million settlement with Instacart in December 2025 and its $25 million Grubhub settlement the year before. San Francisco and Chicago already hold permanent 15 percent delivery caps, and jurisdictions without them have been watching New York for a working enforcement model.
For operators in markets without a cap, the New York settlement carries two practical reads. The first is that platforms can and do quietly relabel or bundle fees into line items that add up to more than the headline rate, and the paper trail to prove it sits inside the platform’s own settlement statements. The second is that enforcement is now being taken on behalf of restaurant owners by name, not only on behalf of delivery workers, which makes a past-24-month audit of platform statements a reasonable operational task for any restaurant that has seen its effective commission drift.
Sources
New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Press Release 030-26
ABC7 New York, Mayor Mamdani Announces HungryPanda Will Pay 875,000 for Overcharging Deliveries
City and State New York, Mamdani Heads to Zoo to Announce Latest DCWP Settlement
Crain's New York, New York Raises Cap on Restaurant Delivery Fees
Hoodline, Federal Trade Commission Calls Out Hidden Delivery Fees
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