Bistro by Blinkit, Zomato’s quick food delivery, will not use the restaurant data from Zomato’s food delivery and dining-out operations.

This comes after the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) will likely approach the Competition Commission of India (CCI) flagging standalone 10-minute food delivery apps.

“This is going to be a significant additional cost to us, but ethics and sticking to our word mean more than anything else to us at Zomato and we are not going to give it up to save some marketing cost,” noted Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Blinkit, in a post on X.

Bistro’s standalone app is built by a separate team rather than being operated under Blinkit’s parent Zomato. Zomato will not even market Bistro, clarified Dhindsa in a post.

“To achieve this, we are innovating on the entire food supply chain with Bistro. At Bistro, no preservatives or food processors are used in preparing the food, nor is it microwaved processed food. Instead we are investing in infrastructure and R&D to create tasty dishes within 5 minutes or less,” he added.

NRAI has expressed concerns that the duo might be using this data to divert customers towards their products sold through these apps.

“The NRAI views this as a clear case of misuse of private labels, infringing upon intellectual property rights under the Copyright Act. We are committed to pursuing all available legal remedies to safeguard the interests of the restaurant industry. This includes filing complaints with relevant regulatory authorities and initiating legal action to prevent Zomato and Swiggy from monopolising the market,” it said in a statement.

NRAI, which represents five lakh restaurants across the country, had earlier cautioned its members over deep discounting and payment gateway tools offered by aggregator platforms for dine-in operations.

Swiggy launched a standalone app for food delivery under the brand Snacc, along with other quick food offerings like Bolt and Swiggy Cafe.