Can You Negotiate Your SkipTheDishes Commission? (Answered)

If Skip's cut feels like it keeps climbing, you are not imagining it — and unlike almost every other cost on your P&L, this one is genuinely up for discussion. The question is not whether you can negotiate, but what actually moves the number and where a hard legal ceiling already does the work for you.

Key takeaways

• Yes, you can negotiate your SkipTheDishes commission — more so than DoorDash or Uber Eats, because Skip publishes no public merchant rate card. Your rate is set person-to-person at onboarding and through your account rep, which means there is room to move it.
• Order volume is the biggest lever. The more orders you push through Skip, the more discretion your rep has to lower your rate.
• In British Columbia, the fee is capped by law at 20% of the order (excluding tax and tip) for the platforms' core services (Government of British Columbia, 2026). No other province has a live cap.
• Skip's owner changed in 2025 — its parent, Just Eat Takeaway.com, was taken over by Prosus (Just Eat Takeaway.com Newsroom, 2025) — which is worth knowing before you renegotiate.
• The strongest long-term move is not a better Skip rate — it is a channel you own so Skip isn't your only path to the customer.

Can you actually negotiate a SkipTheDishes commission?

Yes — and more easily than with the other two big apps in Canada, because Skip doesn't publish its merchant rates at all. DoorDash and Uber Eats both put their Canadian commission tiers on a public pricing page, so what you see is essentially what you get. Skip does not. There is no public "here is what restaurants pay" page; the rate is quoted to you privately when you sign up and is managed through your account representative.

That single fact is the whole reason negotiation works. When a number is set by a person rather than printed on a rate card, that person has discretion. Your job is to give them a reason to use it.

Owners and third-party restaurant guides consistently report Skip's courier-delivered commission landing somewhere around 20–30% for full-service delivery, roughly 15–20% if you do your own delivery, and about 11–14% for pickup orders, with card processing of roughly 2.5–3% on top. Treat those as ballpark figures reported by operators, not published rates — Skip does not confirm them, and your quoted number depends heavily on your volume and location. If you want the plain-numbers version of what all three apps take, see our teardown of what SkipTheDishes, DoorDash and Uber Eats really cost Canadian restaurants.

Why is Skip's rate negotiable when DoorDash's and Uber Eats' aren't?

Because DoorDash and Uber Eats anchor you to published tiers, and Skip anchors you to a conversation. When a rate is public, the sales rep has little room to move — the tiers are the tiers.

Here is how the three compare for Canada. Note that only DoorDash and Uber Eats publish these — Skip's column is what owners report, not a posted rate:

DoorDash and Uber Eats figures are their published Canadian rates (DoorDash, 2026; Uber Eats, 2026); Skip's are owner-reported ranges, not vendor-published.

Because DoorDash's and Uber Eats' tiers are posted, the reps quote from them. Skip's absence of a posted card is the opening. It also means you have to do more homework: you cannot compare your Skip quote to a public benchmark, so you have to build your own case. For a fuller side-by-side of the three, see which delivery app is best for a Canadian restaurant.

What actually moves your SkipTheDishes rate?

Volume, channel mix, and timing — in that order. These are the levers reps can pull, based on how the platforms structure their deals and what operators report from their own negotiations. Work them in this order:

1. Order volume

This is the single biggest lever. Reps are measured on the total order flow they bring onto the platform, so a restaurant doing a few hundred Skip orders a month has far more leverage than one doing thirty. If your volume is climbing, say so, and ask for a rate that reflects where you are heading, not where you started. Small independents with low volume have the least leverage here — which is exactly why the other levers matter.

2. Channel mix — negotiate pickup separately

Delivery and pickup are priced differently, and pickup is much cheaper for the platform because they never dispatch a courier. Don't accept one blended rate. Ask specifically about your pickup commission, and push it down on its own. If a chunk of your app orders are pickup, this can move your effective rate more than a delivery discount.

3. Promotions, exclusivity and timing

Reps have more room to give when you give something back — agreeing to run featured promotions, committing to a longer term, or signing on during a seasonal or new-partner onboarding push when they have incentives to hit. If you are new to Skip or re-signing, that onboarding window is your best moment. Renewing an existing deal? Time the conversation to a quarter-end or a promo season when the rep has targets to hit.

Is there a legal cap on what Skip can charge?

Only in British Columbia — and there it is a hard 20%. BC is the first province in Canada with a permanent cap on delivery fees. Under the Food Delivery Service Fee Act, the platforms' core services are limited "to no more than 20% of the dollar amount of an order, excluding tax and tip," and it applies to platforms that serve 500 or more restaurants — which covers Skip, DoorDash and Uber Eats (Government of British Columbia, 2026). Legal analysts describe the structure as a 15% cap on core delivery plus a 5% cap on additional fees, in force since January 1, 2023 (Cassels, 2023).

Two things every BC operator should do with that:

• Audit your invoice for above-cap line items. Platforms can charge above 20% for "enhanced services" — marketing, analytics and the like — but only if you agreed to them and can cancel to return to the 20% cap (Government of British Columbia, 2026). If your effective rate is above 20%, find out which optional service is driving it and decide whether it is worth it.
• Know that the cap doesn't stop consumer fees. In BC, DoorDash added a "regulatory response fee" of $0.99 on each restaurant-delivery order (up to $2.99 on other delivery orders), charged to the customer at checkout, effective October 1, 2024 (DoorDash, 2024). That is a customer-facing charge, not your commission, but it affects how your prices look on the app.

Outside BC there is no live statutory cap. Ontario proposed a 15%-plus-5% limit during the 2020 pandemic dining bans but never made it permanent, and Quebec's 2021 arrangement was voluntary — do not assume either still constrains your rate. So everywhere except BC, your only cap is the one you negotiate.

What changed with Skip's ownership in 2025?

Skip has a new ultimate owner, and consolidation usually doesn't push rates down. Skip is a subsidiary of Just Eat Takeaway.com; it was originally acquired by Just Eat — a predecessor of that group, before its 2020 merger with Takeaway.com — in 2016 (BetaKit, 2016). In 2025, Just Eat Takeaway itself was taken over: Prosus — the technology investor behind Naspers — declared its offer unconditional on October 2, 2025, taking a 90.13% stake, and Just Eat Takeaway delisted from Euronext Amsterdam on November 17, 2025 (Just Eat Takeaway.com Newsroom, 2025).

Why it matters to you: a bigger, more consolidated parent is under pressure to show returns, and food-delivery margins are thin. That rarely translates into cheaper commissions for restaurants. It is a reason to lock in a good rate now rather than assume the market will soften, and a reason to reduce how dependent you are on any single platform.

What to say to your SkipTheDishes rep

Lead with the structural argument, then your numbers. You are not asking for a favour — you are pointing out that, because Skip doesn't publish a rate card, the rate is theirs to set, and you are giving them the business case to set it lower. A practical script:

1. Open with volume. "We're doing [X] orders a month through Skip and it's growing. I want a commission rate that reflects that."
2. Split the channels. "Let's look at pickup separately — those don't cost you a courier. What can you do on the pickup rate?"
3. Offer something in return. "If we commit to [a featured promotion / a longer term], where can the delivery rate land?"
4. Name your benchmark. "DoorDash and Uber Eats publish their tiers. I need Skip to be competitive with those on total cost, not just headline commission."
5. In BC, hold the line. "We're in BC, so core services are capped at 20% by law. I want our effective rate at or below that, and I want to review any enhanced-service line items."

Then get whatever you agree in writing, and put a calendar reminder to revisit it in six months.

The honest bottom line: even a well-negotiated app rate is still a rate you don't control, on a customer relationship you don't own. The most durable way to cut what you lose to commissions is to route more orders through a channel that charges you nothing per order — a commission-free ordering page you own. Standing up your own site with an order button — something you can do yourself in an afternoon with a builder like DineHere — doesn't replace Skip, but it means the next order isn't Skip's to tax. Negotiate the app rate down; then give yourself somewhere else for the order to go.

Frequently asked questions

Can you negotiate a SkipTheDishes commission rate?

Yes. Skip does not publish a public merchant rate card, so your commission is set privately at onboarding and managed through your account rep — which means there is discretion to lower it. Order volume is the biggest factor in how far it moves.

What commission does SkipTheDishes charge restaurants in Canada?

Skip does not publish its merchant rates. Owners and third-party guides report roughly 20–30% for courier-delivered orders, about 15–20% for self-delivery, and around 11–14% for pickup, plus card processing of about 2.5–3%. Your actual quote depends on volume and location.

Is SkipTheDishes cheaper than DoorDash or Uber Eats?

It depends on your negotiated rate. DoorDash Canada publishes delivery tiers of 20/25/29% and Uber Eats publishes 20/25/30% (DoorDash, 2026; Uber Eats, 2026). Skip's unpublished rate can land above or below those, which is why the negotiation matters.

How do I lower my SkipTheDishes fees?

Push order volume, negotiate your pickup rate separately from delivery, offer promotions or a term commitment in return for a lower rate, and time the conversation to onboarding or a seasonal push when reps have incentives. Get the final rate in writing.

Is there a legal cap on delivery app commissions in Canada?

Only in British Columbia, where the Food Delivery Service Fee Act caps core-service fees at 20% of the order excluding tax and tip, for platforms serving 500 or more restaurants (Government of British Columbia, 2026). No other province has a permanent cap.

Does the BC cap mean I can't be charged more than 20%?

For core delivery and ordering services, yes. But platforms can charge above 20% for optional "enhanced services" such as marketing or analytics, as long as you agreed to them and can cancel to return to the cap (Government of British Columbia, 2026). Audit your invoice if your effective rate is higher.

Who owns SkipTheDishes now?

Skip is a subsidiary of Just Eat Takeaway.com, which was acquired by the technology investor Prosus in a deal that went unconditional on October 2, 2025 (Just Eat Takeaway.com Newsroom, 2025). Prosus took a 90.13% stake and Just Eat Takeaway delisted in November 2025.

Does negotiating a lower rate get me a worse placement in the app?

Placement and commission are separate levers. Higher-tier plans on the published apps buy more visibility, and reps may frame a lower commission as a trade-off against promotion. Decide what you actually need — a lower rate, more visibility, or both — before you negotiate, so you don't trade away margin for placement you don't want.

Should I just leave the delivery apps to avoid commissions?

For most restaurants, no — the apps still bring orders you would not otherwise get. The stronger play is to negotiate the rate down and run your own commission-free ordering channel alongside them, so you keep more of every order the apps don't originate.

How often should I renegotiate my Skip rate?

Revisit it at least once a year, and sooner if your volume has grown meaningfully or you are approaching a contract renewal. Because the rate is set by a rep rather than a fixed card, it can drift — a periodic review keeps it honest.