Zomato, Swiggy face temporary outages; customers unable to order food online

Customers were unable to place their food orders on Zomato and Swiggy for a brief period.

New Delhi: Online food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy, on Wednesday (April 6), faced a brief outage. Several users reported that they could not place their orders on the food delivery apps. 

Users had also noted that they could not browse the restaurants' menus during the brief outage. Many users took to social media platforms such as Twitter to complain about the outage. 

@zomato app is down.Please check.
Feeling hungry — Achal Singh (@AchalSingh93) April 6, 2022

Let this be a gentle reminder that even the best of us can sometimes feel down. Take your time @Zomato, we have got your back.#Zomato pic.twitter.com/GX7K4rEfxx — Policybazaar (@policybazaar) April 6, 2022

However, the outage was short-lived as both the food aggregating platforms were up and running within half an hour. Responding to the customers flagging the glitch on social media platforms, the companies said that they were working on a “temporary glitch.”

What's up @zomato @swiggy_in?

Lunch hour woes! pic.twitter.com/N6V0LsPKGe — Ritika Jain (@Ritikajain09) April 6, 2022

Meanwhile, earlier in the Week, Zomato and Swiggy were alleged of preferential listing of restaurants on the platforms. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered an investigation into the practices of the food delivery platforms to check if the companies were acting "neutral" to restaurant partners.  

CCI in the order stated that "it would want to investigate aspects such as the preferential listing of restaurant partners and pricing parity across platforms, etc."

In response, Zomato had said that it is in compliance with competition laws of the country -- a position it will explain to the anti-monopoly authority CCI during the probe on the preferential listing of restaurants.

"In their order, the Commission has mentioned that it has prima facie not found concerns with respect to our independence on levy of commissions or alleged bundling of services," Zomato said in a stock exchange filing. Also Read: Better late than never: Piyush Goyal says on India-Australia trade

The Gurugram-based company said it will work closely with the CCI and assist them with their investigation and "explain to the regulator why all of our practices are in compliance with competition laws and do not have any adverse effect on competition in India. Also Read: FD Alert! HDFC Bank increases interest rate on fixed deposits from April 6, check latest rates

- With PTI inputs.