GrubHub did exactly the same in the US.
Up to 23,000 domains [1], and listed some restaurants on Google Maps without their permission [2]
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/grubhub-registered-23000-dom...
[2] https://www.wired.com/story/ghost-kitchens-mystery-grubhub-l...
GrubHub was purchased from Thuisbezorgd.nl (Dutch) by Wonder Group (Marc Lore) a few months ago.
Apparently they not only create the website, but also claim the Google Maps listing using the website.
And then go on to extort the restaurants for $$$ to add their correct contact details on the listing.
Slightly tangential, and this might be controversial, but hear me out.
I think we need an alternative to DNS as we know it. Here in India, millions of successful business owners have never heard of DNS. They run profitable enterprises entirely through WhatsApp and use social media pages for their marketing presence.
The reason is straightforward: social media platforms have made it incredibly easy to establish an online presence. These entrepreneurs don't care about domain ownership – an Instagram profile with substantial followers represents real business success to them.
This pattern extends globally. Remember when celebrities maintained their own websites a decade ago? Today, most have abandoned personal sites in favor of social media followings in the millions.
The traditional website + DNS model is simply too complex for most people, so they gravitate toward walled gardens. While this creates platform dependency issues, it also reveals a fundamental UX problem with how we've structured the web's addressing system.
Perhaps we need to rethink discoverability and identity on the internet in ways that are more intuitive for ordinary users, rather than expecting everyone to become amateur system administrators.
Lieferando should spend more time building a good app instead of registering domains. In my experience, they are by far the worst delivery service in Berlin . They’ve also operated long before Uber Eats, Wolt, etc. The only thing they have going for them is some mindshare as the first in the market. I can't understand how they're still around.
Have you ever told the story to Spiegel, Zeit or Böhmermann? I think as many people as possible should be aware of the unethical lieferando practices.
You can always guess how shady a company is, if by looking at the whole web site...there is no mention easily found anywhere of who the directors or management team are.
You have to follow the track to their owner who ultimately is nothing more than some Dutch managers saved of their mismanagement by a buddy Dutch Investment fund ....owned by a South African base...that is a front end to Chinese investments via Tencent Holdings...
But hey...they have a Ethics hotline and can think of multiple ethnics violations to report here:
https://app.convercent.com/en-gb/LandingPage/d8e86634-ec59-e...
INAL but it is my understanding that this practice (registering a website with the same name of an existing third-party restaurant) is already a break of various existing laws, at least potentially.
But, frankly, for small restaurants it's already difficult to make ends meet, so who's got the means to actually take a company like lieferando to court?
For a small restaurant, wouldn't it be easier to rebrand but making sure they own the domain first?
I know this is not ideal, but pragmatically speaking, this might be simpler and cheaper.
Wonderful to see all kinds of nefarious world domination plans are attributed here.
The gist from inside: * Whether restaurants want a domain is an onboarding yes/no question. * If they no longer want it, removing them is a simple message to the customer service from the partner.
Whether they fully understand the yes/no question is debatable at times, however, for that I point you to the easy fix in the second part should they change their mind. Feel free do disbelieve me if that aligns more with your world view.
When websites becomes useless and predatory, looks like more and more small places are doing Facebook pages only. Easier for them, but going to centralised Zuckerberg Internet only is not ideal.
For a Takeaway company, they sure seem to be falling short of EEAT (pun intended).
Maybe it's time for someone at Google to take a look at this abuse like they did when the industry called out Forbes Advisor.
German legal system is really odd.
Amazon did that. In their very beginning, they registered a ton of domains, but in absolute numbers it probably pales to contemporary squatters.
If they're registering a .de domain and violating trademarks I think this would be a great picking for IP lawyers
Is it ethical and legal to do it? A similar case happened in India for a domain "Jiohotstar.com" - a student bought the domain anticipating the merger and make some money out of it. But the Jio filed a case against them and they had to sell it to someone in dubai for a lot less money.
I suspect that doordash does the same thing...
Domain squatting should be illegal
It's telling that they do this without fear of kinetic repercussions from their victims or more bureaucratic consequences mediated through the state.
Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I would like .COM domains to ~ 1000$ per year. As these domains are intended (and actually are) used for COMmercial ventures, the sum should be low enough to not be a burden on even a small real business, but be high enough to not be economically viable for squatting.
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I hate how despite all the rhetoric on HN surrounding how much better ethics companies in the EU must have to comply with regulation, as soon as that regulation slips, they turn out to be equally scummy as the rest of the world.
I am wondering: does a domain still matter in 2025? Nobody is accessing websites by typing the domain name anymore, are they? If gasthauskaiser.de is taken, I feel like I have dozens of other options. Anyway, there's probably hundreds of pubs called Kaiser in German-speaking world. So what's teh real value of a domain like gasthauskaiser.de?
So let's say you own a restaurant joint. Bob's Asian takeaway.
You enter your phone number and opening hours; phone number 123-45-789, open 12.00 - 22.00, mon - sun
One day the phone goes suspiciously quiet. A customer stops by your shop, and orders something. He mentions that he tried calling, but the number he got on google must've been wrong because some automated robot message.
You decide to google your own restaurant, and sure enough, the phone number that shows up is 800-00-123. But your keen eye also spots that the link to the restaurant isn't www.bobsasiantakeaway.com, but rather www.bobsasiantakeaway-food.com
Any way you try to search, the top results only point to that website, phone number, google maps location, etc.
Suddenly a sales rep from some company calls you, and offers you a deal - if you pay [x€ month], they will help with increasing your sales. You say OK, I'll try.
Not too long after, calls and orders start coming in a before. You try to call 800-00-123 from your private cellphone, and sure enough - the phone at work starts ringing. You click on the link www.bobsasiantakeaway-food.com, and you're redirected to www.bobsasiantakeaway.com
If you stop the payments, no more phone calls and no web traffic.
You change the name of your restaurant? A new version of the above pops up immediately. You report it to the relevant authorities, but you're told it could take months and months for them to look at your case...you can't survive 6 months with minimum sales.
For some unfortunate small fish, that's sort of how it works.