GrubHub Accused of Cybersquatting Thousands of Restuarant Domain Names

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GrubHub Accused of Cybersquatting Thousands of Restuarant Domain Names

By CircleID Reporter
June 28, 2019, 9:01 pm PDT Views: 11,482 Add Comment

An investigation by New Food Economy has revealed GrubHub and its subsidiaries have been registering thousands of domain names consisting of existing restaurant names, with over 23,000 domains registered directly under GrubHub. Most of the domains registered are a close or exact match of restaurants’ actual names. In the article published today, New Food Economy has included a link to a list of 23,258 domain names registered by GrubHub along with the date they were obtained. But there’s more—GrubHub is also accused of using the domains to drive traffic back to its platform. From the report: “Additionally, it appears GrubHub has set up several generic, templated pages that look like real restaurant websites but in fact link only to GrubHub. These pages also display phone numbers that GrubHub controls. The calls are forwarded to the restaurant, but the platform records each one and charges the restaurant a commission fee for every order, according to testimony from GrubHub executives at a hearing at New York City Hall on Thursday.”

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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