Just Eat driver 'sent unwanted messages' to female customer

The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating allegations that a delivery driver used a customer’s mobile number to send her inappropriate messages after dropping off the food she had ordered via the takeaway app Just Eat.

The firm was criticised over its response to the complaint from Michelle Midwinter, who said she received a series of late-night messages from the driver, saying he was “a fan” and asking if she had a boyfriend. “Good night baby see you next time when I get your meal,” he allegedly wrote.

Just Eat initially advised Midwinter simply to leave a bad review on the restaurant’s listing on its app. She said she was then offered a £5 Just Eat voucher for the “inconvenience” caused by the unsolicited messages, followed by a second offer of a £10 voucher when she pointed out that that missed the point of her complaint.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition said it was a poor response that betrayed a lack of understanding of how it feels to be put in such a position.

“She knows that guy – who she is not interested in and who has messaged her – has her number,” said its co-director, Sarah Green. “And the company is not helping her feel that can be stopped. It is trivialising to say ‘someone she is not interested in’, it is someone about whom she is thinking: ‘He could be threatening and I don’t feel safe’.”

She added: “There is a common response to harassing behaviour – if that’s what this is – which is to try to play it down.

“If you have an incident like this, you have to think to yourself: ‘What if?’”

Green called for companies such as Just Eat to work more closely with the firms that use their platforms to identify what is and what is not acceptable behaviour – and what happens if standards are not met.

“There are also data protection questions. There will be some technological way of disguising the customer’s number but that is another layer of technology and a cost firms might not be interested in. You have to prevent them from having the number.”

A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner’s Office said: “If a customer’s phone number is used for reasons for which it was not originally taken, it could be a breach of the Data Protection Act. Organisations have a legal duty to make sure personal data is only used for the purposes for which it was obtained. We are aware of reports of an incident involving Just Eat and will be looking into it.”

Responding on Tuesday, Just Eat said it was “deeply concerned” by the incident and admitted its response “lacked empathy” and was not the way it would expect its staff to deal with such complaints.

“We are appalled by the way this was handled,” a spokeswoman said. She added that the firm was looking at its procedures to “understand why incorrect and inappropriate information” was given out.

A statement from Just Eat read: “This driver has acted in a way that does not represent Just Eat and our core values. We are investigating this with our restaurant partner and are also speaking to this customer offline and if the customer decides this is a criminal matter and reports it to the police, we will of course assist the police with any investigation.”

The firm said that restaurants listed on its app were independent businesses. Nevertheless, they were expected to meet its minimum standards, including an expectation that “all drivers associated with our restaurant partners ... act responsibly and respectfully at all times”.