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New Yorkers who rely on the convenience of grocery delivery were left reeling this week when Instacart suddenly charged a new fee on orders, a move the company linked to a sweeping city law that took effect Monday.
Customers will now pay an additional flat fee of $5.99 upon checkout, labeled the “Regulatory Response Fee.”
According to the city’s website, app-based couriers who deliver groceries through third-party platforms, such as Instacart, are now entitled to earn at least $21.44 an hour, the same rate that has been applied to restaurant delivery workers, including Uber Eats and DoorDash, since April 2025.
The worker protection measure will further raise the minimum wage to $22.13 an hour in April, citing inflation. Previously, there was no statutory minimum specifically for grocery delivery workers.
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A delivery worker picks up Wegmans bags outside a store in New York, US, on Thursday, August 8, 2024. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“The regulatory response fee is a direct result of the City’s misguided and onerous grocery delivery laws, which went into effect this week,” an Instacart spokesperson told FOX Business Wednesday.
“For months, we raised clear, data-based concerns that the policy would increase grocery delivery costs for New Yorkers, but those warnings were repeatedly ignored. At a time when family budgets are already under strain, the city moved forward with a policy that makes food less affordable and harder to access for New Yorkers who rely most on grocery delivery.”
Whole Foods cashier Jason Ellsworth does grocery tricks while an Instacart shopper checks his smartphone for ordered items. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In the app purchase, Instacart also noted that the new fee “helps cover increased operating costs in New York due to government regulations on delivery platforms,” according to posts on social networks online
In addition, the law requires delivery services to offer customers a tip option before paying, setting the default tip at 10% of the order cost. The city said the measures are aimed at addressing practices that hid or delayed tip requests, which the city estimated “cost workers more than $550 million.”
While tipping has always been optional on the platform, Instacart emphasized during checkout that “tips are optional. New York law guarantees delivery drivers a minimum hourly rate.”
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A look at Instacart’s scan and pay technology. (Instacart/Fox News)
As early as 2024, Instacart issued several warnings while the measure was being considered, claiming the new ordinance would cause grocery costs to “skyrocket” and limit access to delivery services.
Former Mayor Eric Adams, who vetoed the measures last year while in office, also expressed concern at a time when many New Yorkers, especially seniors, SNAP or EBT recipients and people with disabilities, already face food insecurity. Ultimately, the city council overrode Adams’ veto last September.
| Ticker | security | last | change | % change |
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| BASKET | MAPLEBEAR INC | 37.82 | -0.14 |
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New Yorkers were quick to denounce the company’s new charge on social media this week.
“Instacart’s charging/reimbursing the consumer of a regulatory fee because laws were passed that you have to increase your contractors payment is very low,” wrote one user on Monday X. “As if the service fees you charge both customers and merchants weren’t enough.”
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Other customers noted that they have already or plan to cancel their subscription after the price increase.
“Adding a fee in the middle of my contract… with the fees described should be illegal,” one user said on Reddit on Tuesday.
FOX Business reached out to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for more information.
