Quebec's Delivery Commission Rules for Restaurants

Quebec was one of the first provinces to cap what delivery apps could charge restaurants. In March 2021, the National Assembly passed Bill 87 unanimously, limiting DoorDash, Uber Eats, and SkipTheDishes to a combined 20% commission on each order. Restaurants across the province saw immediate relief.

Then the cap expired. And nothing replaced it.

If you're an independent restaurant operator in Quebec, or anywhere else in Canada watching Quebec's regulatory lead, here's the full picture: what the rules were, what they are today, and what you can actually do about commission rates right now.

What did Bill 87 actually do?

Bill 87, formally titled "An Act to limit certain charges in the restaurant industry," was introduced on March 11, 2021 and passed within days. It did three things:

It capped total delivery charges at 20% of the order value before taxes. That 20% was split into two buckets: a maximum of 15% for the actual delivery service, and 5% for the technology platform fee (the app itself). It also only applied to platforms serving 500 or more restaurants in Quebec, meaning it covered DoorDash, Uber Eats, and SkipTheDishes but left smaller delivery services unregulated.

The penalties were real. Platforms that violated the cap faced fines of up to $1.5 million. For a temporary law, it had teeth.

But the critical detail was in the fine print: the cap only applied while dining rooms were fully closed or operating under reduced hours due to public health orders. Once pandemic restrictions lifted, so did the commission cap. No sunset clause, no phase-out period. The law simply stopped applying.

Where do things stand in Quebec today?

As of April 2026, Quebec has no active regulation limiting what delivery platforms can charge restaurants. The 20% cap from Bill 87 is gone. Operators are back to negotiating directly with platforms at market rates.

Those market rates, verified in March 2026, look like this:

Platform	Lowest Tier	Mid Tier	Highest Tier
DoorDash	Basic: 20%	Plus: 25%	Premier: 29%
Uber Eats	Lite: 20%	Plus: 25%	Premium: 30%
SkipTheDishes	~25% standard	—	SkipGo (pickup): flat fee

So the cheapest option on any major platform is 20%, which happens to match the old regulated cap. The difference is that today, 20% buys you the lowest visibility, the fewest marketing features, and the least promotional support. To get the full platform experience, operators pay 25% to 30%.

There's been political movement. In February 2023, Québec solidaire proposed making the 20% cap permanent. The CAQ government didn't adopt the proposal. A separate bill, Bill 698, also addressed delivery fee limits but remained temporary. As of early 2026, no permanent legislation is on the table.

How does Quebec compare to other provinces?

The provincial map on delivery regulation is uneven. Most provinces tried something during the pandemic, but only one made it stick.

Province	Cap Status	Details
British Columbia	Permanent: 20%	Food Delivery Service Fee Act, effective January 1, 2023. First permanent cap in Canada.
Quebec	Expired	Bill 87 capped at 20% (15% delivery + 5% tech). Only while dining rooms closed. Expired post-pandemic.
Nova Scotia	Expired	Temporary cap during pandemic. Not renewed.
Ontario	Expired	Temporary cap during pandemic closures. Not renewed.
Saskatchewan	Expired	Temporary cap during pandemic. Not renewed.
All other provinces	No cap	Never enacted delivery fee legislation.

British Columbia is the outlier. Its Food Delivery Service Fee Act passed in November 2022 and took effect on January 1, 2023. It permanently caps total fees at 20% of the order subtotal, applies to all platforms operating in BC, and includes enforcement mechanisms. BC's cap survived the end of pandemic restrictions because it was written as permanent legislation from the start, not tied to public health orders.

Every other province that introduced caps took the same approach as Quebec: tie the regulation to pandemic conditions, and let it disappear when the emergency ended.

What does this mean for Quebec operators right now?

Without regulatory protection, Quebec restaurant operators are in the same position as operators in Ontario, Alberta, and most of the country: commission rates are whatever you can negotiate.

Here's what that means in practice for a typical 40-seat restaurant doing $4,000 per month in delivery through a single platform:

Commission Tier	Monthly Commission	Annual Cost	Your Revenue After Commission
20% (lowest tier)	$800	$9,600	$3,200/month
25% (mid tier)	$1,000	$12,000	$3,000/month
30% (highest tier)	$1,200	$14,400	$2,800/month

The difference between the lowest and highest tier is $4,800 per year. And that's before food cost, packaging, and labour. At a 30% food cost, a $40 delivery order on a 25% commission tier nets you roughly $18 after platform fees and food cost. Then subtract packaging ($1 to $3 per order), incremental labour, and you're looking at single-digit margins per order.

This is why the commission rate matters so much. Without a regulated cap, every percentage point comes directly out of an already thin margin. For a deeper look at the full cost breakdown of delivery commissions, including packaging and labour, we've done the math on what you actually net per order.

What can operators do without a cap?

The absence of regulation doesn't mean you're powerless. It means the burden shifts from government to you. A few things that actually move the needle:

Know your per-order economics. Most operators we've spoken with have never calculated their actual net revenue per delivery order. Do the math: order value, minus commission, minus food cost, minus packaging, minus incremental labour. If the number is negative, you have a pricing problem, a menu problem, or a platform problem.

Negotiate your rate. Platforms will negotiate, especially if you do meaningful volume or can offer exclusivity. DoorDash and Uber Eats both have regional reps with authority to adjust commission tiers for independent restaurants. The leverage is real: platforms compete for restaurant supply, particularly in markets like Montreal where all three are active. Our guide to negotiating delivery commissions walks through the specific tactics.

Use BC's cap as a benchmark. Even though Quebec doesn't have a cap, the 20% BC standard is a useful floor in any negotiation. Platforms already operate under that ceiling in BC. Pointing to it during a rate conversation isn't unreasonable.

Build your direct ordering channel. The most effective long-term play is reducing your dependency on third-party platforms altogether. Canadian options like UEAT (Montreal-based, now part of Lightspeed), Square Online, and ChowNow let you take orders directly through your own website at a fraction of the cost. Commission-free or low-fee direct ordering means you keep the margin and the customer data. Third-party platforms become a discovery channel for new customers. Repeat customers order direct. Our comparison of direct ordering vs. third-party delivery breaks down the economics.

Watch the political landscape. Quebec has shown willingness to regulate when conditions warrant it. Bill 72, which took effect in May 2025, addressed consumer protection, pricing transparency, and tipping rules for restaurants, though it didn't touch delivery commissions. If enough pressure builds from the restaurant industry, permanent delivery fee legislation isn't out of the question. Restaurants Canada and the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ) have both advocated for permanent caps.

Should other provinces follow BC's lead?

This is where it gets interesting. BC's permanent cap is the only model in Canada that survived the end of the pandemic. Every other province's temporary cap expired, and none have come back to the table with permanent legislation.

The argument for permanent caps is straightforward: delivery platforms hold significant market power, and independent restaurants lack the volume to negotiate fair rates individually. A 20% ceiling gives operators predictable costs and forces platforms to compete on service quality rather than extracting higher fees.

The counterargument is that caps can reduce platform investment in smaller markets, slow expansion to new cities, and push hidden costs elsewhere (higher consumer fees, reduced driver pay). Platforms themselves have argued that caps limit their ability to invest in the restaurant partnerships that drive growth.

Both sides have merit. But here's what we think gets lost in the debate: the real issue isn't whether 20% is the right number. It's that most independent operators have no idea what they're actually paying after all the fees, and they don't have the tools or the leverage to change it. That's a transparency problem as much as a regulation problem.

Whether or not Quebec re-introduces a cap, the operators who come out ahead are the ones who know their numbers, negotiate from data, and build direct channels that reduce their platform dependency over time.

Sources: Quebec National Assembly — Bill 87, CBC News, Montreal Gazette, BC Gov News, Eater Montreal.

---

Want to know your exact delivery margins? Model your per-order economics platform by platform and tier by tier, using your real commission rates rather than the headline number. The full commission breakdown shows the method.

---