Customers have slammed Just Eat for tacking a service charge onto every payment.
The online takeaway firm was due to have its card transaction fee banned by a European Union directive.
But just three days before the ban came into effect, the company introduced a 50p fee whether buyers pay using cash or card.
Just Eat customers have shared their outrage after the firm introduced a new 50p service charge on both cash and card payments days before the card payment fee will be scrapped
The move – which allows the company to recoup the 50p card charge that was set to be banned on January 13 – has seen Just Eat accused of ‘dodging’ EU rules.
Some of the company’s 9million customers called for a boycott, while others simply deleted their phone apps.
Just Eat – a company worth about £5.4bn – was likened to a legendary English highwayman by one Twitter user, who wrote: ‘At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.’
The FTSE 100 firm insists the fee ‘ensures fairness for all’ because it sees everyone paying the same rate, whether they pay using a card or not.
Card surcharging was branded a ‘rip-off’ and ‘unfair’ by the Treasury and revenue generated from such charges raked in about 13 per cent of Just Eat’s total 2016 revenue.
The Treasury warned some companies would recoup the money they stood to lose by raising prices or changing fee names and Twitter user Hollie Borland branded Just Eat’s move a ‘sneaky way of getting around the ban on service charges for card payments’.
Fees on credit card payments will be scrapped, but Just Eat has introduced a service charge that applies to all payments
Chris Allen tweeted: ‘It just feels you’re blatantly and deliberately forcing everybody to pay an additional 50p to cover the fact you can’t charge those by card 50p.’
Just Eat forecasts its revenue for 2017 at between £500million and £515million, figures which suggest the loss of the card fee would have cost the company more than £50million.
Because the new charge applies to both cash and card purchases, however, the company could generate even more revenue than if they’d been allowed to keep their card fee.
In a statement, Just Eat said: ‘As of 8 January 2018 we have made a change to the way restaurants are charged to process Just Eat orders – a 50p service charge will be implemented for all orders.
‘The 50p charge simply means that along with our restaurant partners, we can continue to deliver the best possible takeaway experience.’
Just Eat jumped into the top flight of the FTSE Index in November.
The firm has seen shares jump 37 per cent over the past year, with relentless revenue growth and a string of deals keeping its stock in demand.
Investor appetite for the company has helped push its stock market value beyond supermarket giant Sainsbury’s.